LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



i. ... 

Chap. Copyright Noo_ 



Shelt.„._R.4 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



The Heavenly City 



HEAVEN: THE WAY TO IT, ITS INHABITANTS, 

EMPLOYMENTS, ENJOYMENTS, GLORIES ; 

AND CHILDEEN AND RECOGNITION 

OF FRIENDS THERE 



EDITED BY 



EDWIN W. RICE, D.D. 



IThe UNION PRESS 

Philadelphia. 



•1123 CHESTNUT STRQET* 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED, 

library of Gcj5gp@r%^ 

Office of tfc;^ 

KG 1 8 1899 

Register of Copyrlgfcfgj, 






49902 



if^[599^y ihe American Sunday 

The Li r^^y 
OF CoNro<i:ss 

WASHINGTON 



■School Union. 



»SCOND COPY, 






FOEEWOED. 

When one is to move to a new country it is 
counted wise to find out something about it be- 
fore he starts. 

So whoever expects to go to heaven will be 
wise to learn as fully as possible beforehand 
what heaven is, how to get there, who live in 
it, what their employments and comforts are, 
and whether he will find friends among its in- 
habitants. 

Into this little volume the compiler has at- 
tempted to gather the substance of what the 
Bible tells us about heaven, and also of what 
devout and holy men of the past and present 
have thought and said respecting that blessed 
place. 

Words like these comfort the weary and sad, 
and give peace to the mourner and to the af- 
flicted. For through them they may look away 
to a better country, even a heavenly, remember- 
ing what our blessed Lord has said : ^^Lay up for 
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither 
moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves 
do not break through nor steal: 

FOR WHERE., THY TREASURE IS, THERE WILL THY 
HEART BE ALSO."^ 

^Matt. 6:20, 21, R.Y. 



THE HEAVENLY CITY. 



CHAPTER I. 

WHAT WE CAN KNOW ABOUT HEAVEN. 

*Tor he looked for the city which hath the founda- 
tions, whose builder and maker is God." Heb. 
11:10, E.V. 

What can we know about heaven? Mucli, 
in many ways, if we read the Bible with atten- 
tion. To the Jew, the Christian, and the Mo- 
hammedan alike, Jerusalem is ^^the holy city," 
"the city of God." So in his highest thought 
of heaven Jew or Christian calls it the "new 
Jerusalem" the heavenly city of God. 

When the beloved apostle John had a vision 
of heaven he rapturously exclaimed of it: "The\ 
city hath no need of the sun, neither of the \ 
moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did [ 
lighten it, and the lamb is the light thereof." ^ 
Rev. 21:23. 

To the scattered and persecuted Hebrew 
Christians in the first century the writer of the 

(7) 



8 TEE EEAYENLT CITY, 

Hebrews sent this comforting and inspiring 
message: ^^Ye are come unto Mount Zion^ and 
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly 
Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, 
to the general assembly and church of the first- 
born who are enrolled in heaven." Heb. 12: 
22, 23. 

The New Testament often speaks of heaven 
as a city. The ideal home of the future which 
Abraham sought is described as ^^a city" "whose 
builder and maker is God." As true spiritual 
children of Abraham, the Hebrew Christians 
had here "no continuing city"; their greatest 
comfort and joy was in seeking such a city "to 
come." For "they desire a better country; that 
is, a heavenly"; wherefore God "hath prepared 
for them a city." Heb. 11:10, 16, E.V. 

The early Christians, suffering persecutions, 
slain with the sword, burned at the stake, de- j 
voured by the wild beasts, were filled with joy- 
ous hope of seeing their Saviour face to face, \ 
where "the city was of pure gold, as it were 
/^Transparent glass," "the holy city" "having the 
^glory of God," "the river of the water of life, 
bright as crystal," "having twelve gates." "Each 
one of the several gates was of one pearl," and 
the foundations of the city "were adorned with 
all manner of precious stones," and the glory of 
the nations, and of God brightened that city, 
and there they, the suffering Christians, "shall 



ABOUT HEAVEN. 9 

reign for ever and ever.'' This was the glorious 
hope that sustained them. This gave them cour- 
age in facing horrible deaths by fagot, fire, fierce 
lions, and wild beasts. This made the afilictions 
of their life light, when compared with the un- 
speakable joys and glories of the life to come. 

THE CHRISTIAN IDEA OF IT. 

Some suppose that we know nothing of 
heaven. Indeed, an article in the Nineteenth 
Century Magazine attempts to show^ that the 
Scriptures teach us that we are in the dark on 
this matter, and that we cannot know anything 
about heaven. This agnostic writer quotes 
Paul's letter: ^^Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither have entered into the heart of 
man the things which God hath prepared for 
them that love him" (1 Cor. 2:9), as evidence 
of his assertion that we cannot know anything 
of heaven. 

But Paul was proclaiming to the Corinthians 
exactly the opposite view. He was trying to 
show them how much better and wiser those 
called to be Christians were than the worldly. 
To prove it he quotes from Isaiah's prophecy, 
literally ^'Things which eye saw not, and ear 
heard not, and which entered not into the heart 
of man, whatsoever things God prepared for 
them that love him. But unto us God revealed 



10 THE HEAYENLT CITY. 

them througli the Spirit" is his triumphant ex- 
clamation. See 1 Cor. 2:9, 10, E.V. 

Any competent literary writer, reading the 
entire passage, would say at once that it most 
positively asserts that Christians do know these 
things. The language is strong in the Common 
Version of the Bible; it is even stronger in the 
Revised Version. 

The New Testament assumes and asserts that 
believers can and do know much about the 
heavenly life; for it tells them of that life. 
John closes his revelation with inspired pictures 
of heaven, full of glorious conceptions and de- 
scriptions of it, as lofty, and sublime as it is 
possible to depict in any human language. Paul 
himself also portrays the future life, and the 
Christian's state with Christ in heaven in similar 
strains in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinth- 
ians. 

The glories of that place do indeed so far ex- 
ceed the highest happiness on earth, and the 
bliss of heaven is so unspeakably great, that 
human language is too weak and inadequate to 
describe the wonders of it. But this fact gives 
us, in some respects, a higher and nobler concep- 
tion of heaven, and tends to make us long more 
earnestly to experience its unspeakable delights. 

It seems well worth while to gather into a 
brief space what the Bible tells us about heaven, 



ABOUT HEAVEN, H 

and how devout minds of the past and present 
have interpreted these teachings and the com- 
fort they have gained from them. What has 
the Bible to say, what have the godly believed 
or known about heaven? 

THE HEAVENLY CITY. 

1. Heaven described as a City. In that 
sublime vision of a ^^new heaven and a new 
earth/^ which appeared to John, he ^^saw the 
holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of 
heaven from God." It was ^^the holy city Jeru- 
salem,'' ^^having the glory of God: her light was 
like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jas- 
per stone, clear as crystal: having a wall great 
and high: having twelve gates, and at the gates 
twelve angels.'' ^^The city was pure gold, like 
unto pure glass. The foundations of the wall of 
the city were adorned with all manner of pre- 
cious stones." Then follows this remarkable list 
of the precious stones: jasper, sapphire, chal- 
cedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, 
beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth, and amethyst. 
"The twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one 
of the several gates was of one pearl: and the 
street of the city was pure gold, as it were trans- 
parent glass." "And he shewed me a river of 
water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out 
of the throne of God, and of the Lamb, in the 
midst of the street thereof. And on this side of 



12 THE EEAYENLT CITY, 

the river, and on that, was the tree of life, bear- 
ing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit 
every month : and the leaves of the tree were for 
the healing of the nations/' See Rev. 21 and 
22, E.V. 

After this manner does John give us a raptur- 
ous description of the holy city, the new Jeru- 
salem, the home of believers; that is, heaven. 
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews also 
speaks of heaven as '^the city of the living God, 
the heavenly Jerusalem," and as ^"^an abiding 
city'' which his brethren did not possess on 
earth; hence ''we seek after one which is to 
come." See Heb. 12:22; 13:14. 

This figure of a city as the abiding place of 
the glory of God, and as the blissful home of his 
people, was hallowed in the hearts of Israel, from 
early time. The Psalmist delights to picture the 
place where Jehovah was worshipped as the ^^city 
of God." He joyously sings of ''sl river, the 
streams whereof shall make glad the city of 
God; Glorious things are spoken of thee, O 
city of God." Pss. 46:4; 87:3. And the 
prophet breaks forth in rapturous praise of ^^the 
city of the Lord; the Zion of the Holy One of 
Israel," ^Hhe sun shall be no more thy light by 
day: neither for brightness shall the moon give 
light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto 
thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy 
glory." Is. 60:14, 19. 



ABOUT HEAVEN. 13 

HEAVEN A PALACE. 

2. Heaven pictured as a great House, Jesus 
comforted his disciples with this divine promise, 
^^In my Father's house are many mansions [lit- 
erally ^^separate abiding-places" or ^^rooms'']; if 
it were not so, I would have told you; I go to 
prepare a place [a suitable one] for you." And 
for each of you. 

This great palatial house is represented as hav- 
ing a social, feasting place. ^^Many shall come 
from the east and the west, and shall sit down 
[literally ^^recline" as at a feast-table] with 
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom 
of heaven." Matt. 8:11. Compare also Luke 
13:29. 

Paul has a similar thought, since ^^God being 
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he 
loved us," ^^raised us up with him [Christ], and 
made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in 
Christ Jesus." Eph. 2:4, 5. 

HEAVEN god's THRONE. 

3. Heaven is ivliere God is. Within this 
heavenly palace is God's throne, and Jesus Christ 
sits on the right hand of the Father Almighty. 
^^Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, 
and the earth is my foot-stool." Is. 66: 1. Jesus 
said: *^^Swear not at all: neither by heaven; for 
it is God's throne." Matt. 5 : 34. The martyr 



14 TEE HEAVENLY CITY, 

Stephen in his defence tried to show his accusers 
that Jesiis was the Messiah, and hence that the 
^^most High dwelleth not in temples made with 
hands/' as they supposed. Then he reminded 
them of the words of the great prophet, ^^Heaven 
is by throne." Acts 7:48. Jesus Christ him- 
self ^^is set down at the right hand of the throne 
of God." Heb. 12:2. Compare also the de- 
scriptions in Kev. 1:12, 18; 11:17-19; 14:2, 
3; 21:22. 

Jesns himself foretells a renewed creation 
^Vhen the Son of man shall sit in the throne of 
his glory," and ^Vhen the Son of man shall come 
in his glory, and all the holy angels with him; 
then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory" to 
judge all nations. Matt. 19:28; 25:31, 32. 

THE PARADISE. 

The devout thoughts of Bishop Hall are so 
vivid, that it almost seems as though he had 
actual visions of the blessed world above. ^^See 
the place wherein they are" — the redeemed, he 
exclaims, ^^the heaven of heavens, the paradise of 
God, infinitely delectable, such as no eye can 
behold and not be blessed. Shouldst thou set 
thy tabernacle in the midst of the sun thou 
couldst not but be encompassed with marvelous 
light; yet even there it would be but as mid- 
night with thee, in comparison of those irradia- 



ABOUT HEAVEN. 15 

tions of glory wliicli shine forth above in that 
imperial region, for thy God is the sun there.'' 
Eev. 21:23. 

A GLORIOUS PLACE. 

Not long before his death Dr. ISTevins wrote: 
^^I have been thinking of the attractions of 
heaven — what there is in heaven to draw souls 
to it. I thought of the place. Heaven has place. 
Christ says to his disciples: ^I go to prepare a 
place for yon.' It is part of the consolation with 
which he comforts them, that heaven is a place, 
and not a mere state ! What a place it must be ! 
Selected out of all the locations of the universe 
— the chosen spot of space. We see, even on 
earth places of great beauty, and we can conceive 
of spots far more delightful than any we see. 
But what comparison can these bear to heaven, 
where everything exceeds whatever eye has seen, 
or imagination conceived ? The earthly paradise 
must have been a charming spot. But what was 
that to the heavenly ! Oh what a place Jesus 
will make, has already made, in heaven !" 

A BLESSED HOME. 

Heaven is a condition, a character, as Chal- 
mers maintains. It is also represented as a 
spiritual kingdom, the place in the great universe 
where God has made a home for his people. 
While heaven is a spirit-world, it is a real one, 



16 THE HEAVENLY CITY, 

filled with the glory of God. It is where Christ 
is, and where Christians will be — their eternal 
home. It is not merely a state, it is a place also. 
^^Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every 
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in 
Christ.'' Eph. 1:3, B.V. Said Jesus: ^^ go to 
prepare a place for you"; ^Hhat where I am, 
there ye may be also.'' John 14: 2, 3. A blessed 
heavenly home ! 

How delightful is home. Heaven is the Chris- 
tian's eternal home ! 



AN ETEENAL HOME. 

^*Aye sung before the sapphire-colored throne 
To him that sits thereon, 
With saintly shout, and solemn jubilee: 
Where the bright Seraphim in burning row 
Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow: 
And the cherubic host in thousand choirs 
Touch their immortal harps of golden wires. 
With those just spirits that wear victorious palms, 
Hymns devout and holy psalms, 
Singing everlastingly: 
While all the round and archless blue 
Resound and echo ^Hallelu.' 
O may we soon again renew that song. 
And keep in time with heaven, till God ere long 
To his celestial concert us invite, 
To live with him and sing in endless morn of light!" 

John Milton. 



ABOUT HEAVEN. 17 

THE CELESTIAL COUNTRY. 

^^0, mine, my golden Sion! 

O lovelier far than gold! 
With laurel-girt battalions, 

And safe victorious fold: 
O sweet and blessed country, 

Shall I ever see thy face? 

sweet and blessed country, 
Shall I ever win thy grace? 

1 have the hope within me. 
To comfort and to bless! 

Shall I ever see thy face? 
O tell me, tell me *Yes'!" 
[From "The Celestial Country," by Bernard of Cluny. 
Tr. by John M. Neale.] 

A HAPPY HOME. 

Jerusalem the golden. 

With milk and honey blest, 
Beneath thy contemplation 

Sink heart and voice oppressed. 
I know not, 0, 1 know not. 

What social joys are there, 
What radiancy of glory, 

What light beyond compare! 

lUd. 

Jerusalem, my happy home! 
My soul still pants for thee; 
, Then shall my labors have an end 
When I thy joys shall see! 
[Francis Balder (priest) and W, Prid. Rewritten by 
David Dickson.] 



CHAPTEE II. 



THE WAY TO HEAVEN. 



Jesus says: "I am the way." John 14: 16. 
"For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, 
that leadeth unto life." Matt. 7: 14, R.V. 

The huinan soul will follow self and the 
world; it will wander from God and heaven. 
It must turn toward God, and keep on that right 
course toward heaven. 

"There is none righteous, no, not one; 
There is none that understandeth, 
There is none that seeketh after God; 
They have all turned aside, they are together become 

unprofitable ; 
There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as 
one." Rom. 3:10-12, R.V. 

"The breath of God, blowing where it listeth, 
touches with its mystery of life the dead souls of 
men, bears them across the bridgeless gulf be- 
tween the natural and the spiritual, between the 
spiritually inorganic and the spiritually organic, 
endows them with its own high qualities, and 
develops within them those new and SAveet fac- 
ulties by which those who are born again are said 
to see the Kingdom of God.^^ Drummond. 
(18) 



THE WAY TO HEAVEN. 19 

REACHED BY KEPENTAI^CE. 

^^How is the soul to escape to heaven if it has 
neglected for a lifetime the means of escape from 
the world and self? And where is the capacity 
for heaven to come from if it be not developed 
on earth? ... If every Godward aspira- 
tion of the sonl has been allowed to become ex- 
tinct, and every outlet that was open to heaven 
to be choked, and every talent for religious love 
and trust to have been persistently neglected and 
ignored, where are the faculties to come from 
that would ever find the faintest relish in such 
things as God and heaven give?'' Drummond. 

"The longer you live without repentance, the 
more you will have to repent of, and the less 
time to repent in. Many of you, I fear, are in 
the wrong road — the road that leads to death. 
Turn — turn to-day — into the narrow path. God 
will help you, and, if you seek his grace, will 
guide you safely to that world where there is no 
more sin." S, G. Green. 

BEACHED BY FAITH. 

To reach heaven, one must come to and be- 
lieve on Jesus Christ. "What is meant by com- 
ing to Christ? It is repenting, returning, pray- 
ing, believing, and living daily in his company.'' 

"You must come to him by faith, by obedi- 
ence. . . . Come to Christ; it will be the 



20 TEE HEAYENLT CITY. 

best way of begining life. . . . Commit 
your way to liim. Come; it will render you 
safe for eternity. ... If Christ blesses 
you, you are blessed forever. But, if you do not 
seek him, Satan will seek you, and keep you.'' 
Rev. Isaac Taylor. 

^^The most intense life ever lived on this earth 
should naturally be a life energized by the Holy 
Ghost. In such a life the intellect may experi- 
ence a marvelous awakening. The tendency of 
its working is to the positiveness of knowledge. 
Probabilities grow to certainties in the convic- 
tions of such a mind. Belief becomes assurance. 
The range of intellectual vision expands as the 
soul ascends the mount of its transfiguration.'^ 
Professor Phelps. 

BY A HOLY LIFE. 

^^The rewards of heaven are so great and glori- 
ous, and Christ's burden so light, his yoke so 
easy, that it is a shameless impudence to expect 
so great glories at a less rate than so little serv- 
ice; at a lower rate than a Jioly life. It cost the 
heart-blood of the Son of God to obtain heaven 
for us upon that condition; and who shall die 
again to get heaven for us upon easier terms?" 
Jeremy Taylor. 

^^When my soul journeys forth I know that 
highest kings and princes are appointed to attend 
me; namely, the dear angels themselves, who 



TEE WAY TO HEAVEN. gl 

will receive me, and guard me on my way." 
Luther. 

THE HEAVENLY PILOT. 

"The heavenly pilot guides the ship of Zion. 
We are passengers, happy in cheery cabins and 
state-rooms of the vessel, anxious only when we 
step out to the bow or up to the decks and try 
to peer through the mists to the unseen shore. 
But One is at the helm who knows the waters 
well, and Avhose hand will guide the vessel 
through. We doubt sometimes and fear, and 
find fault, and wish we were safe over the treach- 
erous sea. But while we are trembling and 
afraid, hark to the tone of the fog-bell sounding 
from the shore ! ^This way V ^Come hither !' 
'Holdfast!' 'Be thou faithful unto death !' Lo, 
I am with you always, even to the end of the 
world.''' Alexander Clarh. 

THE GLORIOUS VOICE. 

"But who is 'coming'? If you could see the 
Lord Jesus standing there, right before you, and 
you heard him say, 'Come !' would you say, 
what does 'come' mean? And if the room were 
dark, so that you could only hear and not see, 
would it make any difference? Would you not 
turn instantly toward the 'Glorious Voice' ?" 

"To whom 'coming,'^ Here is the secret of 
advance in the narrow way, after we have en- 
tered by the strait gate. It is not the having 



33 TEE HEAVENLY CITY. 

come once to begin with, but the coming con- 
tinually to Jesiis." 

You are on the King's business in the King's 
highway. . . . And '^'^the King's business 
required haste." 1 Sam. 21:8. ^^Yet there is 
no other business about which average Christians 
take it so easy. ... It is always pressing, 
and may never be put oflf. Much of it has to 
do with souls which may be in eternity to-mor- 
row. . . . We find four rules for doing the 
King's business. We are to do it: (1) heartily, 
(2) diligently, (3) faithfully, (4) speedily." F. 
B, Havergal. 

THE WAY OF GRACE. 

"Yea, Lord this is my heart's desire. I would 
walk with thee day by day in perfect peace. 
Give me grace to walk with thee in 
love all the way to glory. . . . This love 
surpasseth knowledge. Oh help me to under- 
stand more, give me to find more of thy cove- 
nant love. Make my heart one with thee; lead 
me in thy one way, that I may fear thee forever, 
and when temptations come, such as I have been 
in, grant that thej may bring me nearer to thee. 
. . . A saved sinner, delivered by mere 
grace from wrath and hell, entitled to all spirit- 
ual blessings in Christ Jesus, and already ad- 
mitted to partake of thee, may sing and make 
melody in his heart all the way to heaven. And 



THE WAY TO HEAVEN. 23 

yet, alas ! how often art thoii, O my soul, in 
heaviness, walking in distress, and cast down, as 
if thy hope of rejoicing were in vain ! . . . 
Remember, O my soul, it is thy duty and thy 
privilege to rejoice in God. . . . Sing unto 
the Lord, for he hath done excellent things; this 
is known in all the earth. Eternal salvation will 
demand the tribute of eternal praise." William 
Romaine. 

THE WAY OF NEW BIETH. 

The way to heaven is through a new or spirit- 
ual birth. "Among all the preposterous notions 
which a new and crude theology has poured forth 
so profusely in our day, there is none more ab- 
surd than that a dead sinner can beget new life 
in himself. The very idea of his becoming his 
own father in the spiritual regeneration is as un- 
reasonable as such a supposition in relation to 
our first birth Vhich were born not of blood, 
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but of God.' ^Born of the Spirit.' And 
you hath he [God] quickened who were dead in 
trespasses and sins." But who can trace the 
work of the Spirit in this wonderful renovation? 
"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou 
hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is 
everyone that is born of the Spirit." Archibald 
Alexander. 



34 TEE HEAVENLY CITY. 

FIVE STEPS. 

There are five stages or steps in tlie way to 
heaven: — 

1. Turning from sin to God. Hear some of 
the calls of God from his word: "As I live, saith 
the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of 
the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his 
way and live; turn ye, turn ye, from your evil 
ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" 
Ezek. 33:11. 

"Amend your ways and your doings, and obey 
the voice of the Lord your God.'^ Jer. 26:13. 

"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the 
unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him re- 
turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon 
him; and to our God, for he will abundantly 
pardon.'' Isa. 55:7. 

"Except ye turn, and become as little children, 
ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of 
heaven.'' Matt. 18:3, E.V. 

"Kepent ye, therefore, and turn again, that 
your sins may be blotted out." Acts 3:19. To 
erring Peter Jesus said: "When once thou hast 
turned again, stablish thy brethren." Luke 22: 
32. John the Baptist preached repentance to 
the multitudes, saying: "Repent ye: for the 
kingdom of heaven is at hand." " "Make ye ready 
the way of the Lord." Matt. 3:2, 3, E.V. 

The prodigal when he came to himself said: 



TEE WAY TO HEAVEN. 35 

^^I will arise and go to my father, and will say 
unto him : Father I have sinned against heaven, 
and in thy sight.'' Luke 15:18. ^^Jesus began 
to preach and to say: Eepent ye; for the king- 
dom of heaven is at hand." Matt. 4: 17. See also 
Mark 1:15. ^^Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord 
of hosts, and I will turn unto you." Zech. 1 : 3. 

^^Enter ye in by the narrow gate; for wide is 
the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to 
destruction, and many be they that enter in 
thereby. For narrow is the gate and straitened 
the way, that leadeth unto life." Matt. 7:13, 
14, E.V. 

2. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. "When 
the jailor cried out: ^^Sirs, what must I do to be 
saved?" Paul and Silas answered: ^^Believe on 
the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou 
and thy house." Acts 16 : 31. 

When the multitudes asked Jesus: ^^^What 
must we do, that we may work the works of 
God?' Jesus answered and said unto them: 
^This is the work of God, that ye believe on 
him whom he hath sent.'" John 6:29. 

"For with the heart man believeth unto right- 
eousness." Eom. 10:10. Belief or faith in 
Jesus Christ is a saving grace, which enables the 
soul to rest upon him alone for salvation, as he 
is offered to us in the Gospel. This grace is the 
gift of God. Eph. 2:8. This belief comes to 
all who accept Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour. 



26 TEE EEAVENLT CITY. 

^^As many as received him^ to them gave lie tlie 
right to become children of God.'' This change 
is described as a new birth. ^^Born not of blood, 
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but of God." For Jesus said to Mcodemus: 
^^Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, 
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." John 
1:13; 3:5. 

So your belief must spring from a loving 
trust on the finished work of Christ. The devils 
believe there is one God and tremble. Jas. 2: 
19. But they do not believe on God. ^^Whoso- 
ever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 
Rom. 10:11. Jesus says, ^^He that believeth on 
me hath everlasting life." John 6:47. 

This grace, this faith, this new birth, this 
spiritual life is a free gift which God offers you 
for the sake of Christ who died for sinners. 
^^Even so through one act of righteousness the 
free gift came unto all men to justification of 
life." Eom. 5 : 18, R. V. ^Tor God so loved the 
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth on him should not perish, 
but have eternal life." John 3:16. 

3. Confess Christ. That was a remarkable 
promise which Jesus made to disciples. ^^E very- 
one, therefore, who shall confess me before men, 
him will I also confess before my Father which 
is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me be- 
fore men, him will I also deny before my Father 



TEE WAY TO HEAVEN. 27 

which is in heaven.'' Matt. 10:32, 33, E.V. 
Again he said: ^^Every one who shall confess me 
before men, him shall the Son of man also con- 
fess before the angels of God; but he that 
denieth me in the presence of men shall be de- 
nied in the presence of the angels of God." 
Luke 12:8, 9, E.V. 

To have the Saviour, who is to be the 
Almighty Judge, deny us in the presence of 
the hosts of angelic beings, who could stand 
that? 

The great apostle declares: ^'^If thou shall con- 
fess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shall be- 
lieve in thy heart that God raised him up from 
the dead, thou shall be saved.'' Eom. 10:9, 
E.V. 

The beloved apostle writes: "If we confess 
our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive 
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unright- 
eousness." Again he adds: "Every spirit 
which conf esseth that Jesus Christ is come in the 
flesh, is of God." And yet, again to make it as 
simple and easy as possible, he says once more, 
"Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son 
of God, God abideth in him, and he in God." 
John 1:9; 4:2, 15. 

Timothy was urged not to be "ashamed of the 
testimony of our Lord." 2 Tim. 1:8. "And 
hope putteth not to shame." Eom. 5:5, E.V, 



28 THE HEAVENLT CITY. 

ASHAMED OF JESUS ! 

"Jesus, and shall it ever be, 
A mortal man ashamed of Thee? 
Ashamed of Thee, whom angels praise. 
Whose glories shine through endless days? 

"Ashamed of Jesus, that dear Friend, 
On whom my hopes of heaven depend! 
No; when I blush be this my shame 
That I no more revere his name. 

"Ashamed of Jesus ! yes, I may. 
When I've no guilt to wash away, 
No tear to wipe, no good to crave, 
No fear to quell, no soul to save." 

Grigg and Francis. 

4. Follow Christ. Christ has reopened heaven 
to man. He has gone thither before us, to lead 
us on the way, and to prepare a place for believ- 
ers. We must follow him. 

To the two disciples of John who heard Jesns 
called the Lamb of God, and who followed him 
Jesns turned and said, ^^What seek ye? They 
said unto him, Rabbi, where dwellest thou? He 
saith unto them. Come, and see.'' 

When Jesus saw Philip, he said ^Tollow me.'' 
John 1:38, 39, 43. When Jesus found Peter 
and Andrew on the Sea of Galilee, he said to 
them: ^Tollow me." And soon after by the 
same sea he called James and John and they 
^^foUowed him." To another disciple who 
wanted to turn to some worldly duties, Jesus 
also repeated his command: "Follow me." 



TEE WAY TO EEAVEN, 29 

More explicitly Jesus said: ^^If any man would 
come after me, let him deny himself, and take 
up his cross, and follow me/' Matt. 16:24. To 
the rich young man eTesus said lovingly: ^^Sell all 
that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and 
thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, 
follow me.'' Luke 18:22. 

To the Greeks who sought him, Jesus again 
declared, "If any man serve me, let him follow 
me." John 12 : 26. Of all in the Christian fold 
he said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know 
them, and they follow me." John 10:27. 

When John forbade a man from casting out 
demons in Jesus' name because he did not liter- 
ally follow them Jesus said: "Forbid him not; 
for he that is not against you is for you." Luke 
9:60, R.V. Thus he explains that one who is 
true and loyal to his mission in saving men 
through Jesus Christ is following Jesus. 

Of those who sang the new song on Mount 
Zion it is said: "These are they which follow the 
Lamb whithersoever he goeth." Rev. 14:4. 

5. Grow into Chris fs liheness. The Psalmist 
sings: "I will behold thy face in righteousness; 
I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy 
likeness." Ps. 17:15. 

"One who starts to build a Christian faith is 
beginning a long and a great task. There is 
much study, and much thinking to be done. 
There are many teachings of Jesus about faith 



30 TEE HEAVENLY CITY. 

and duty. ... (a) You must hold fast the 
great starting truths. It is not enough to have 
believed them once. You must keep tight hold 
of them; every day you must take a fresh grip 
on them. . . . (&) Seek earnestly and hon- 
estly for more light and truths. . . . Every 
new truth that proves itself to a man makes him 
that much stronger and his life that much richer. 
. . . Work into your life the truth you find." 
W. P. Merrill 

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIEE. 

'They were all filled with the Holy Spirit/' 
says Luke in his account of the scene at Pente- 
cost. See Acts 2:4, Am. R.V. Jesus had, be- 
fore this, breathed on the apostles, and said: 
''Receive ye the Holy Spirit.'' John 20: 22, Am. 
R.V. This was done to fill them with expecta- 
tion of the gift, and that they might prepare for 
his coming through prayer and waiting upon 
God. For eTesus also charged the same disciples 
"not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for 
the promise of the Father," adding as an en- 
couragement to wait: "ye shall receive power, 
when the Holy Spirit is come upon you." Acts 
1:4,8. 

This "power," the Spirit-filled life, came upon 
them at Pentecost. Paul was riot among the dis- 
ciples at Pentecost. But before he began his 
work of Jesus Christ an humble disciple was 



TEE WAY TO HEAVEN. 31 

sent to him by the Lord, who, laying his hands 
on Paul, said: ^^Receive thy sight and be filled 
with the Holy Spirit/' Acts 9:17, Am. R.V. 
His life ever after was a Spirit-filled and Spirit- 
led life. This can be had for the asking, and by 
complying with the conditions. This is the 
almost indispensable condition of growth, of 
progress, in the heavenly way. 

Many souls are dwarfed, stunted, and never 
attain the fullness of stature in Christ Jesus. 
They do not claim what God has promised them. 
It is as if they had vast sums placed to their 
credit in the Bank of England and should never 
draw on it, even flatly refused to do so, fearing 
that their draft would not be honored. 

So the Christian has vast sums of spiritual 
treasures on deposit in God's treasury, placed 
there by the Lord Jesus Christ. 

^^Some of his people have died spiritually 
poor; some are living to-day in spiritual penury, 
a hand-to-mouth existence, with untractable 
riches lying at call on deposit in their name. 
What have we done with our deposit?'^ John 
MacNeil. 

SPIRITUAL RICHES. 

The simple conditions of gaining these riches 
are: 1. Cleansing the heart and life. Peter said 



32 TEE HEAYENLT CITY. 

of the despised Gentiles who believed: ^^God, 
who knoweth the heart, bare them witness, giv- 
ing them the Holy Spirit, even as he did unto 
us; and made no distinction between us and 
them, cleansing their hearts by faith." Acts 15 : 
8, Am. R.Y. Cleansing is to have a conscience 
void of offense. It is to translate the Gospel into 
our lives. It is to have the Lord Jesus present 
us ^^faultless before the presence of his glory." 
Jude 24. It is Paul's prayer for the Thessa- 
lonians filled out for us. ^^I pray God your 
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved 
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. IThess. 5:23. 

2. Consecrating the life to Christ. This is 
to have the heart and life set apart for a holy use. 
It is not only to be clean from sin, it is to go 
further and devote ourselves to the service of 
Christ. Our daily work is to be regarded as 
done for Christ. Our life is to be hid in Christ. 
"I beseech you, therefore,* brethren, by the 
mercies of God, to present your bodies a living 
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your 
spiritual service." Eom. 12:1, Am. R.V. 

3. Claim the gift of the Spirit-filled life. 
^^Ask and it shall be given you." ^^How much 
more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy 
Spirit to them that ask him?" Luke 11: 13, Am. 
E. V. See the pledge fulfilled in Acts 2 : 3. 



TEE WAY TO HEAVEN. 33 

EECEIVE THE BLESSIIs^G. 

"A Christian man came to me once and said — 
expecting a word of encouragement and ap- 
proval — ^I have been seeking that blessing for 
over thirty years.' ^Brother, it is nearly time 
you got it^ then !' was the swift rejoinder. For 
all these years during which the man was crying, 
^Give, give, give !' God was saying, ^Take, take, 
take ! Receive, receive ! for I do give !' If my 
little girl of three years old were crying piteously 
for a piece of bread, knowing that she must be 
very hungry, and having the bread by me, would 
I tell her to cry on for another hour, and then 
I might attend to her wants ! But what if, in 
spite of my offering and of her crying, she would 
not take the bread I offered, but still kept on 
crying: ^Father, O, father! Do give me bread. 
I am so hungry !' You silly child ! 

^^Oh how many silly children has the Father 
in his family, crying year in and year out : ^Give, 
give !' And the Father, all yearning over them 
and saying ^Take, take, my child !' Let us give 
over crying, and set to work receiving! Take 
and thank! Receive and thank'!" John Mac- 
Neil ^ 

^^But we all, with unveiled face, beholding, 
as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are trans- 
formed into the same image from glory to 
glory." 2 Cor. 3:18, Am. E.V. 



34 TEE EEAYENLT CITY. 

It is througli being "brouglit nigli/' tbrougli 
a walk as in the presence of God, ^^till we all 
attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the 
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown 
man, unto the measure of the stature of the full- 
ness of Christ/' Eph. 4: 13, E. V. 

WIN SOULS ON THE WAY. 

The spirit-filled life will ever be working for 
Christ; winning souls to him, not simply to save 
souls, but also to please the Lord. In such a 
life of prayer and service, the soul will find the 
highest joy. Thus, the way to heaven will be 
like a journey through the land of Beulah, even 
when beset by tempters. Though the meadow 
is obstructed by stone fences, and broken by 
ditches, the grass is green, the daisies are beau- 
tiful and cover the stone wall, and overlap the 
ditches so that the eye scarcely notes breaks 
in the grassy plain. So the spirit-filled, working 
soul, is trustingly, earnestly, rejoicingly going 
on the heavenly way, borne over obstacles, temp- 
tations, hindrances, using them even as helps 
toward the heavenly City. For Jesus Christ is 
his Redeemer, the Captain of his salvation, and 
the Holy Spirit, his ever present guide ! 

A poor man said: there are only three steps 
to heaven: out of self — into Christ — ^into glory ! 
Zeuxis, the famous painter, would never allow 
a work of his to be seen until he had turned it 



TEE WAY TO HEAVEN. 35 

over and over, this way and that, to see if he 
could discover any defect in it. They asked 
him why he did this. He replied: ^^I paint for 
eternity.'^ So, thongh the way to heaven be 
slow and toilsome, the end or reward is worth the 
pains. 

The dull of sight put on spectacles to pass 
over a narrow bridge, so that he may see clearer, 
and walk more securely. So those whose spirit- 
ual sight is dulled by sin should seek the aid of 
the Spirit, that they may escape the whirlpools 
of sin, and be safe on the narrow way to heaven. 

There is a famous picture by a great artist 
that represents a little child, in the garb of a 
pilgrim, walking slowly along a narrow path 
bounded on either side by overhanging rocks or 
some terrible, yawning precipice. The edge of 
the precipice is hidden from the child's view by 
a thick growth of flowers, and the overhanging 
rocks are concealed by thick leaves and fruited 
trees. Behind the child is an angel with sweet 
face of tenderness, his hands lightly touching the 
child's shoulders, as if to keep him in the safe 
way. The child has closed his eyes, that he may 
not be tempted by the snares on either side, and 
is walking calmly on, content not to see each 
step he takes, so long as he feels the guiding 
touch of the angel. Thus may the pilgrim on 
the heavenly way go forward under the guiding 
touch of the Holy Spirit. 



36 TEE EEAYENLT CITY. 

uowLANjy hill's triumph. 

Rowland Hill, near the close of his life, 
preached in Walworth for a charitable institu- 
•tion. The service exhausted his feeble frame, 
and he went into the vestry to rest. When he 
could summon energy to leave the church, his 
friend, the Rev. Mr. Clayton, offered to assist 
him, but he declined it, and passed down the 
aisle of the chapel. The lights were nearly all 
out, the silence was profound. IsTothing was 
heard but the majestic tread of one's own foot- 
steps, when Mr. Hill began in an undertone to 



"And when I'm to die 

Eeceive me, I'll cry, 
For Jesus has loved me, I cannot tell why; 

But this I can find, 

We two are so joined 
That he'll not be in glory and leave me behind." 

And this was repeated to him in his dying 
hour, bringing back the light to his fast-fading 
eye, and smile to his face ; his lips moved in vain 
to articulate the words. It was a triumph of life 
in death. Belcher^ s Life of Whitefield. 

There is no death. ^Vhat seems so is transition. 

This life of mortal breath 
Is but the suburb of the life Elysian, 

Whose portal we call death. 

E, W. Longfellow, 



TEE WAY TO H EATEN, 37 

SHUT OUT. 

Shut Out of Heaven. From the heavenly 
city everything foul and everything false will 
be excluded. Perhaps we can still trace the in- 
veterate hostility of free will in the persons ex- 
cluded. Not only are they in their own persons 
tainted and hollow, but afford them scope and 
they still are such as defile, as work abomination, 
as make a lie. ISTever must I picture to myself 
lost souls as ready to repent were repentance 
attainable, ready to be reconciled were a door 
opened to reconciliation, as more ready to pray 
than God to hear. 

While there was life, there was hope; and 
once Christ's tender hand touched and healed 
the leper; ^^But put forth thine hand now, and 
touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse 
thee to thy face." 

Little lamb, who lost tliee? 

I myself, none other. 
Little lamb, who found thee? 

Jesus: Saviour, Brother. 
Ah, Lord, what I cost thee! 
Still mine arms surround thee! 

Canst thou still desire? 

Still I lift thee higher. 
Draw thee nigher. 

Christina Rossetti. 



CHAPTEE ni. 

THE IINHABITAI^TS OF HEAYEN. 

"Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they 
may have the right to come to the tree of life, and 
may enter in by the gates into the city." Rev. 22 : 14, 
E.V. 

There will be three wonders to ns in heaven: 
^^One to find so many we did not expect to see 
there; another, to find that some are not there 
whom we expected; and, thirdly, the greatest 
wonder of all, may be, to find ourselves there. 

CELESTIAL BEINGS. 

^^I desire the reader to attend me, first, into 
the celestial mansions, above yonder glorious 
sun, and the stars themselves, where not only 
cherubim and seraphim, angels and archangels, 
but many also of our brethren, sons of men, are 
at this very moment enjoying the presence and 
singing the praises of the Most High God. 

^^And could we but leave our bodies for awhile 
below, and go up to take a turn in the new Jeru- 
salem that is above, we could not but be ravished 
(38) 



TEE INHABITANTS OF HEAVEN. 39 

and transported at tlie very sights; both of the 
places and inhabitants — every one being far 
more glorious than the greatest emperors of this 
world, with nothing else than cro^^nis of glory 
on their heads, and sceptres of righteousness in 
their hands; where they think of nothing but 
the glory of God, discourse of nothing but prais- 
ing him, do nothing but adore and worship him. 
. . . Whatsoever can any way conduce to 
make men happy is fully, perfectly, eternally 
enjoyed by all and every person that is in 
heaven. '^ Bishop Beveridge. 



THE SOCIETY OF HEAVET^. 

Says ISTevins, writing of heaven near the close 
of his life here: ^^Then I thought of the society. 
It is composed of the elite of the universe. The 
various orders of angels, who kept their first 
estate, as humble as they are high — the excellent 
of the earth also — all the choice spirits of every 
age and nation — the first man — the first martyr 
— the translated patriarch — the survivor of the 
deluge — the friend of God and his juniors, Isaac 
and Jacob, — Moses the law-giver, and Joshua the 
leader of the host — the pious kings — the proph- 
ets, the evangelists — and apostles, Paul and 
John — the martyrs — the reformers — the Puri- 
tan fathers — the missionaries, Swartz, Brainerd, 
Martyn, Carey^ Morrison. . . . Perhaps 



40 TEE EEAYENLY CITY, 

tliou hast a brother or a sister there^ that should 
draw you toward heaven. Perhaps a mother, 
she whose eye wept while it watched over thee, 
until at length it grew dim, and closed. Took 
she not in her cold hand, thine while yet her 
heart was warm, and said she not, ^I am going 
to Jesus. Follow me there V Perhaps one 
nearer, dearer than child, than brother, than 
mother — the nearest, dearest is there. Shall I 
say whom? . . . Has heaven no attrac- 
tions? Heaven is gaining in attractions every 
day! . . . But there is our Heavenly 
Father, and Jesus who bought us. 

THE GOOD or ALL AGES. 

"Amongst the good whom we hope to meet 
in heaven there will be every variety of char- 
acter, taste, and disposition. There is not one 
Mansion' there, but many. There is not one 
%ate' to heaven, but many. There are not gates 
on the north only; but on the east three gates, 
on the west three gates, and on the south three 
gates. From opposite quarters of the religious 
world, from opposite quarters of human life and 
character, through different expressions of their 
common faith and hope, through different modes 
of conversion, through different portions of the 
Holy Scriptures, will the weary travelers enter 
the Heavenly City, and meet each other, ^not 



THE INHABITANTS OF HEAVEN. 41 

without surprise' on the shores of the same river 
of life. And on those shores they will find a 
tree bearing, not the same kind of fruit always, 
and at all times, but ^twelve manner of fruits' 
for every turn of mind — for every patient suf- 
ferer, for the active servant, for the holy and 
humble philosopher, for the spirits of just men 
now at last made perfect, and the leaves of the 
tree shall be for the healing' not of a single 
church or people only, not for the Scotsman or 
Englishman only, but for Hhe healing of the 
nations,' the Frenchman, German, Italian, Rus- 
sian, for all those from whom it may be, in this 
world, its fruit has been farthest removed but 
who, nevertheless, have hungered and thirsted 
after righteousness, and who therefore shall be 
filled." Dean Stanley. 

Says Adam in 'Trivate Thoughts": "If I 
were to choose whether I would go immediately 
to heaven, or remain longer here, I believe I 
should choose the former; but then I believe it 
would be rather to avoid being thought a fool, 
and to be rid of the vexations I meet with here, 
than from love to Christ, and a desire of the 
company and delights of heaven." 

Paul wrote under the pressure of his great 
work: "Having the desire to depart and be with 
Christ, for it is very far better: yet to abide in 
the flesh is more needful for your sake." Phil, 
1:23, R.Y. 



42 ^^^ HEAYENLT CITY. 



WHO ADMITTED. 



Charles H. Spurgeon finely says none will be 
admitted to heaven but those who are like Jesus. 

^^At heaven's gate there stands an angel with 
charge to admit none but those who in their 
countenance bear the same features as the Lord 
of the place. Here comes a monarch with a 
crown upon his head. The angel pays him no 
respect, but reminds him that the diadems of 
earth have no value in heaven. A company of 
eminent men advance dressed in robes of state, 
and others advanced with the gowns of learning, 
but to these no deference is rendered, for their 
faces are very unlike the crucified. A maiden 
comes forward, fair and comely, but the celestial 
watcher sees not in that sparkling eye and ruddy 
cheek the beauty for which he is looking. A 
man of renown cometh up, heralded by fame 
and preceded by the admiration and clamor of 
mankind; but the angel saith: ^Such applause 
may please the sons of men, but thou hast no 
right to enter here.' 

^^But free admittance is always given to those 
who in holiness are made like their Lord. Poor 
they may have been; illiterate they may have 
been* but the angel as he looks at them smiles 
a welcome as he says: ^It is Christ again: a tran- 
script of the holy child Jesus.' 



TEE INEABITANTS OF EEAYEN. 43 

Come in: Come in: 
Eternal glory thou shalt win, 
Thou shalt sit in heaven with Christ, for thou art like 
him." 

"And now lift your thoughts into heaven! 
As we were crucified with him in his death, 
and buried together with him, so we are raised 
together with him to where he now is, seated in 
heavenly places in Christ Jesus ! What we have 
is eternal, the three eternals of Heb. 9, eternal 
redemption, eternal inheritance, the eternal 
spirit who raised him from the dead.'' 

GROWTH IN" HEAVEN. 

"A million years of growth would never give 
me the absolute perfectness the place requires. 
It requires not growth merely, but what is essen- 
tially, intrinsically holy. It is in the absolute 
holiness of Christ that the sinner who believes is 
meet for the scene ! Wonderful standing ! 
Wonderful grace that gave it P' /. Dedham 
Smith, 

FLING OPEN WIDE THE GOLDEN GATES. 

Ten thousand times ten thousand, 

In sparkling raiment bright, 
The armies of the ransomed saints. 

Throng up the steeps of light; 
^Tis finished, all is finished, 

Their fight with death and sin; 
Fling open wide the golden gates, 

And let the victors in. 



44 TEE HEATEDLY CITY. 

Wliat rush of hallelujahs 

Fills all the earth and sky! 
What a ringing of a thousand harps 

Bespeaks the triumph nigh! 
Oh, day, for which Creation 

And all its tribes were made! 
Oh, joy for all its former woes 

A thousandfold repaid ! 

Henry Alford. 

HEAVEN POPULOUS. 

^^Heaven is called a kingdom, for its immense 
greatness; and a city, for its great beauty and 
population. It is full of inhabitants of all 
nations and conditions; where are many thou- 
sands of angels, an infinite number of the just, 
even as many as have died since Abel. And 
thither also shall repair all who are to die unto 
the end of the world, and after judgment shall 
there remain forever, invested in their glorious 
bodies. ITeither shall this populous city be in- 
habited with mean and base people, but with citi- 
zens so noble, rich, and just, that all of them 
shall be most holy and wise kings. How happy 
shall it be to live with such persons ! The Queen 
of Sheba, only to see Solomon, came from the 
end of the earth: to behold a king issue out of 
his palace, all of the people flock together; what 
shall it then be, not only to sea, but to live and 
reign with many angels, and converse with so 
many eminent and holy men ! 



TEE INEABITANTS OF EEAYEN, 45 

^^If there should now descend from heaven 
one of the prophets or apostles^ with what earn- 
estness and admiration would everyone strive to 
see and hear him ! In the other world we shall 
hear and see them all. How admirable will it 
be to see thousands and thousands in all their 
beauty and greatness; and see many bodies of 
suns under all their lustre ! If one sun be suf- 
ficient to clear up the whole world here below, 
what joy shall it be to behold those innumerable 
suns in that region of light !" Jeremy Taylor. 

CROWDED WITH THE YOUNG. 

^^One grand peculiarity of John's celestial city 
is this: It is a crowded city. In it are multi- 
tudes which have poured through its gates on 
the north, and on the south, and the east, and 
the west, and they have come from every kin- 
dred and people and tongue and nation of the 
earth. They have come from every degree of 
longitude and every line of latitude. They have 
come from the pole and the equator, and from 
under the north star and the southern cross. " As 
John speaks of these multitudes he piles num- 
bers upon numbers; ^Ten thousand times ten 
thousands and thousands of thousands,' /which 
no man can number.' I always like to ring the 
changes upon these numbers, not simply because 
they are musical, but because they give me some 
conception of the vastness of salvation. As I 



46 TEE EEAYENLY CITY. 

look through the eyes of John, the apostle of 
love, I learn that the redeemed will constitute 
the largest part of the souls which God has 
made. And why not? There is no limit to the 
efScacy of Christ's atoning death. It is a poor 
estimation that the devil's kingdom will far ex- 
ceed the kingdom of our Lord. The assumption 
is an insult to the father-heart of God. It is 
not true. It conflicts with this declaration of 
the book that Vhere sin abounds, grace doth 
much more abound.' It conflicts with the 
promise which is made to Christ, who died to 
save men; ^he shall see of the travail of his 
soul, and shall be satisfied.' Only a multitude 
which no man can number can satisfy the soul 
of Christ. This is John's picture of heaven: an 
ideal city with nothing gross in it, nothing un- 
spiritual in it, nothing that repels; the home of 
perfected humanity, the focus of the best; full of 
social life, brilliant with the flash of all mingled 
hues and glories, all the inhabitants having their 
spheres and their appointments and their daily 
avocations. It is a city with God dwelling in 
it, where his servants do serve him. 

^^To begin with, those who enter the other 
life are endowed with a perfect personality. In 
the soul there will be no sin, no unbalanced 
passion, no crippled faculty, no mental nor moral 
nor spiritual infirmity. . . . Heaven will 
make us all young. There will be no old age 



THE INHABITANTS OF HEAVEN. 47 

there. The resurrection means rejuvenation. 
Is there any Scripture for this faith? Certainly. 
In the Scriptures it is said that in heaven Ve 
shall be made equal to the angels.' Now if we 
are to be made equal to the angels, we must be 
made young. 

^^Listen to the fullest description of an angel 
given us in the Bible. It is taken from the story 
of Christ's resurrection: ^and entering into the 
sepulcher they saw a young man sitting on the 
right side, clothed in a long, white raiment.' 
This is the fullest authentic picture of an angel 
that we have, and it is a picture of radiant, un- 
changing youth. Radiant, unchanging youth ! 
that is what we shall have when we are made 
equal to the angels. 

^^Again, in the book it is said that our bodies 
shall be changed and transfigured and made like 
unto Christ's resurrection and ascension body; 
^We shall be like him; for we shall see him as 
he is.' Does not that mean the loss of the marks 
of age, and the enjoyment of perpetual youth? 
The ascension of Christ took place when he was 
a young man. He entered heaven at the age of 
thirty-three; to be made like him is to be made 
youthful." David Gregg. 

HEAVETs" ABOUT ITS. 

"Men leave this world with differing capaci- 
ties, endowments, qualifications; and they will 



^8 TEE HEAVENLY CITY. 

eacli find in tlie world unseen the place and oc- 
cupation for which they are best fitted. Each 
will ^^go to his own place'' by the force of an 
irresistible spiritual attraction. The man found 
worthy to rule over ten cities will preside over 
ten cities, and he who is worthy to have five 
cities will rule over five. Our Lord promised 
his apostles that they should sit on thrones of 
authority over the twelve tribes of Israel. What- 
ever may be the meaning of such figurative 
language, we may be sure that it represents 
great truths. And we can at least see as much 
as this: that heaven is not what we ordinarily 
mean by a place — a given locality that can be 
defined and mapped out. It is much more a 
state of being, a moral, spiritual, and intellectual 
relation to an infinite series of more and more 
rarefied atmospheres of purity and beauty, into 
which admission is gained, not by traveling 
through stellar spaces, but by a gradual ascent 
in the altitude of being. As men become purer, 
more loving, more spiritual, organs of perception 
will open out within tKem, which will disclose 
new worlds, perhaps close to them. Alps will 
on Alps arise above them as they ascend in the 
scale of being. Splendors never dreamed of, 
wonders never imagined, will reveal themselves 
in every fresh mansion which the aspiring saint 
or angel enters. And this progress will go on 
forever, for progress is the inalienable preroga- 



TEE INHABITANTS OF HEAVEN. 49 

tive of moral and intellectual being. It is so 
here, at least till decay of faculties begins. But 
tliere will be no decay there. 

"^Tlie laws of matter, remember, do not exist 
for spiritual beings. For them there is no such 
thing as distance or nearness. They do not go 
from place to place by locomotion. They do 
not, travel at all in our sense of the word. "Within 
the sphere of their finite conditions they are in- 
stantaneously wherever they Vv^ish to be. Space 
and time no more impede them than they im- 
pede your thoughts, which reaches any part of 
the globe in a moment. In short, the researches 
of scientific men have now proved that there are 
innumerable sights and sounds, colors, and 
voices, in this world which we inhabit, of which 
J we are not cognizant merely because we have 
no organs fine enough to apprehend them. A 
distinguished professor of natural science says: 
^When we reflect that there are waves of light 
and soimd of which our dull senses take no cog- 
nizance; tliat there is a great difference even 
in human perceptivity, and that some men, more 
gifted than their fellows, can see colors and hear 
sounds which are invisible or inaudible to the 
great bulk of mankind; you will appreciate how 
possible it is that there may be a world of spirit- 
ual existence around us, inhabiting this globe, 
enjoying the same nature; in fact, the wonders 
of iSTew Jerusalem may be in our midst, and the 



50 TEE EEAYENLY CITY. 

songs of tlie angelic host filling tlie air with 
their celestial harmonies, although nnseen and 
unheard by ns/ Another distlngalshed man of 
science, who was president of the British asso- 
ciation some years ago, and who happens to be 
also a distinguished lawyer, uses these words 
in a treatise on the ^^Correlation of Physical 
Forces": ^Myriads of organized beings may ex- 
ist, imperceptibly to onr vision, even if we were 
among them.' 

"Is not that an awfnl thought? We are never 
alone. The air around ns is resonant with voices 
which we do not hear, tremnloiis with the vibra- 
tion of shapes moving to and fro, which we 
do not see. How cautions, how reverent, the 
thought should make us." Malcolm MacColly 
M.A. 

'NO SECT IN HEAVET^. 

The messenger of Pyrrhus was asked, on his 
return from Rome, what he thought of the place. 
He answered that it seems to be a state of none 
but great men, and a commonwealth of kings. 
Such is heaven. Every faithful soul there is a 
king and co-heir with Christ, wearing a purple 
robe of honor, holding a scepter of power, is on 
a throne of majesty, and wears a crown of glory. 

"A young Christian dreamed that he was 
translated to heaven. He imagined that Jesus 
Christ asked each one of his church relations on 



THE INHABITANTS OF HEAVEN. 51 

the earth. One was an Episcopalian, another a 
Baptist, another a Methodist, and another a 
Presbyterian, and so on. Places were given to 
each according to his denomination. Finally in 
came a poor Christian Indian knowing nothing 
of these differences, and trembling, lest there 
was no place for him. . When asked what he was 
he answered, ^^I am a Christian, and love the 
Lord Jesns with all my heart.'' ^^Then," replied 
the Saviour, ^^yon may walk all about heaven 
hither and thither, just as you please.'' 



CHAPTER lY. 

THE EMPLOYIVIENTS AND ENJOYMENTS OF HEAVEN. 

*'And his servants shall serve him." Rev. 22 : 3. 

Our ideas of heaven are often deeply colored 
by our condition on the earth. Robert Hall suf- 
fered always from bodily pain. Richard Baxter 
had one prolonged fight with disease. Their 
idea of heaven was perfect and everlasting rest. 
William Wilberf orce had a life of amiability and 
enjoyment. His idea of heaven was ^^perfect 
love.'' John Howe was majestic in his thought; 
his conceptions of ^^the blessedness of the right- 
eous" are like his life, elevated and majestic. 
eTohn Owen was devout, stately, and joyous; his 
meditations ^^On the Glory of Christ/' as one has 
said, ^^seem to echo the praises of the heavenly 
worshippers.'^ Bunyan had a dream transport- 
ing him near the heavenly city, so that he gained 
a clearer view of it. His sublime description of 
the city, the heavenly host, the shining ones, the 
celestial trumpeters in white" and shining rai- 
ment, making the heavens to echo with the 
sound of melodious harmonies, the thronging 
(52) 



EMPLOYMENTS AXD ENJOYMENTS, 53 

companv of bright oneSj tlie streets of gold, the 
joyous thoughts which no mortal pen nor tongue 
can express, stirs the soul with raptures above 
all the scenes witnessed or imagined on the earth. 

FELLOWSHIPS OF HEAVEX. 

Heaven, in Southey's \dew, was the home of 
genius, where all the gifted spirits of our race 
hold exalted fellowship. He longed to see and 
converse with Shakespeare, Dante, and Chaucer. 
John Foster felt that the great secrets of the 
universe were hid from him; that death would 
break through this barrier and give his spirit 
free scope to plunge into the mysteries of the 
world beyond. He longed to soar away, like the 
eagle, beyond the clouds. 

Leighton longed for purity, love, perfection 
in Christ with God. His death-day he coimted 
the birthday of his eternity. 

^^O, the blessed tranquillity of that region," 
exclaims Richard Baxter, ^Vhere there is noth- 
ing but sweet, continued peace ! O, healthful 
place, where none are sick! O, fortunate land, 
where all are kines ! O, holy assembly, where 
all are priests ! How free a state, where none 
are servants, but to their supreme Monarch ! 

"The poor man shall be no more tired with 
his labors; no more hunger, or thirst, cold or 
nakedness; no pinching frosts or scorching 
heats. Our faces shall no more be pale or sad; 



54 TEE HEAYENLT CITY, 

no more breaches in friendships nor parting of 
friends asunder; no more trouble accompanying 
our relations, nor voice or lamentation heard in 
our dwellings. ^God shall wipe away all tears 
from our eyes.'^ 

NO NIGHT THERE. 

" ^And there shall be no night there !' I glory 
in the predicted absence of night. We are ac- 
customed to take night as the image of igno- 
rancCj perplexity, and sorrow. The absence of 
night from the heavenly state may justly be re- 
garded as affirming the absence of all which 
darkness is used to represent. 

^^There shall be no night there ! The ways of 
Providence shall be made clear. The mysteries 
of grace shall be unfolded. The things hard to 
be understood shall be explained. We shall dis- 
cover order in what has seemed intricate, wisdom 
in what we have thought unaccountable, and 
good where we have seen only injury. 

^There shall be no night there ! Children of 
affliction, hear ye this ! Pain cannot exist in the 
atmosphere of heaven ! 'No tears are shed there, 
no graves opened, no friends removed, and never 
for a lonely moment does even a flitting cloud 
shadow the deep rapture of tranquillity. 

"There shall be no night there ! Children of 
calamity, hear ye this. No baffled plans there, 
no frustrated hopes, no sudden disappointments 



EMPLOYMENTS AND ENJOYMENTS. 55 

but one rich tide of happiness shall roll through 
eternity and deepen as it rolls/' Henry Melville. 

LOVING SEKVICE. 

Of employments in heaven Dr. David Gregg, 
in ^^The Heaven-Life/' says: ^^Work up there 
is a matter of self -relief as well as a matter of 
obedience to the ruling will of God. It is work 
according to one's taste, delight, and ability. If 
tastes vary there, if abilities vary there, then oc- 
cupations will vary there. There will certainly 
be no fewer occupations there than there are 
here. Heaven is, in every way, broader than 
earth, — not narrower. For example, God's gov- 
ernment is there. The administration of gov- 
ernment means active agencies. The jasper 
throne calls for work on thousands of lines." 

Heaven were no heaven, if its dear light could fade, 

If its fair glory could hereafter wane, 
If its sweet skies could suffer stain or shade, 

Or its soft breezes waft one note of pain. 

O heaven of heavens, how true thy life must be! 

O home of God, how excellent thy light! 
O long, long summer of eternity. 

Bright noon of angels, ever clear and bright! 

Horatius Bonar, 

'Mid the chorus of the skies, 

'Mid the angelic lyres above. 
Hark, their songs melodious rise. 

Songs of praise to Jesus' love. 



56 THE HEAVENLY CITY. 

Happy spirits, ye are fled, 

Where no grief can entrance find; 

Lulled to rest the aching head; 
Soothed, the sorrows of the mind." 

Thomas Raffles, 



BEAUTIES OF HEAVEN. 

"One day in thy courts is better than a thou- 
sand. And if those joys of heaven were short 
and those of earth eternal, yet we ought to for- 
sake these for those. What shall it be to possess 
them for eternity, when the joy of them shall 
be equivalent to many years ! If the beauties 
of all creatures, heaven, earth, flowers, pearls, 
and all other things that could give any light, 
were all comprised in one thing; if every one 
of the stars yielded as much light as the sun, and 
the sun shone as bright as of all them together: 
all these so united would be, in respect of the 
beauty of God Almighty, as a dark night in re- 
spect of the clearest day. 

"O life of lives, surpassing all life ! O ever- 
lasting life ! O, life blessed forevermore, where 
there is joy without sorrow ! O, the inanity and 
emptiness of temporal goods ! What proportion 
do they hold with this greatness ; since they are 
so poor, it makes them odious, and not to be 
endured. Who could continue a whole month 
without any diversion, in hearing the choicest 
music ! ISTay, who could pass a day free from 



EMPLOYMENTS AND ENJOYMENTS. 57 

weariness, without some thought of pleasures? 
But such is the greatness of those joys which 
God has prepared for those who love him and 
fear him, that we shall still desire them afresh 
and they will not cloy us in a whole eternity. 
^^O, what fools then are they who, for one 
point of earth, lose so many leagues of heaven ! 
Who for one short pleasure, lose things so im- 
mense and durable/' Jeremy Taylor. 

THE COISTDITIONS. 

Of the end and employments of the heavenly 
state Andrew Fuller says: ^^Tou read that the 
Lord will be our everlasting light, and our God 
our glory; that our life is hid in Christ with 
God; that when he shall appear, we shall ap- 
pear with him in glory; and that we shall then 
be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 
Hence a full enjoyment of God and conformity 
to him are the sum of heaven. 

^^Tou read, further, that the bliss in reserve 
for Christians is a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory; that now we are the sons of 
God, but it does not yet appear what we shall 
be. Hence you naturally conclude that the 
heavenly city will abundantly surpass all our 
present conceptions of it. 

^^Again, you read that those who shall be 
found worthy to obtain that world and the resur- 
rection of the dead neither marry nor are given 



58 TEE HEAVENLY CITY. 

in marriage, but are like the angels of God. 
Hence we conclude that the employments and 
enjoyments of that city are altogether spiritual 
and holy. 

^^You read of our knowledge here being in 
part, but that there we shall know even as we 
are known. You read concerning those who 
shall obtain that world and the resurrection, that 
they cannot die any more, that they shall go 
no more out; that the inheritance to which they 
are reserved is incorruptible and fadeth not 
away, and that the weight of glory which we 
look for is eternal. Hence that the immortality 
promised to Christians is certain and absolute.'^ 



It would be impossible for us to conceive, 
much more to recount, all the varied employ- 
ments of heaven. Surely with the powers such 
as the soul will have in that world we could not 
expect less varied employments than in the 
world below. Some of the employments in that 
world are described or alluded to in the Bible. 

1. One employment will certainly be the com- 
pleting of the imperfect knowledge of earth. 
Jesus said to Peter ^^What I do thou knowest 
not now; but thou shalt understand hereafter.'' 
John 13 :Y, R.V. Paul says: ^Tor we know in 
part, and we prophesy in part; but, when that 
which is perfect is come, that which is in part 



EMPLOYMENTS AND ENJOYMENTS. 59 

sliall be done away/' ^Tor now we see in a 
mirror^ — darkly; but then face to face. N"ow 
I know in part; but then shall I know even as 
also I have been known/' 1 Cor. 13:9, 10, 12, 
E.Y. 

2. Converse with holy men will be another 
employment of heaven. Jesus said in Caper- 
naum to the centurion: ^^Many shall come from 
the east and the west, and shall sit down with 
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom 
of heaven.'' Matt. 8 : 11, E. V. This word ^^sif' 
means literally to recline at the table. So they 
are to have social converse with the patriarchs 
as well as with each other. 

3. Singing and praising God and the Lord 
Jesus Christ for redemption will be another em- 
ployment of heaven. 

^^After these things I saw, and behold, a gTeat 
multitude, which no man could number, out of 
every nation, and of all tribes and peoples and 
tongues, standing before the throne and before 
the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in 
their hands; and they cry with a great voice, 
saying: ^Salvation unto our God, which sitteth 
on the throne, and unto the Lamb.' And all 
the angels were standing roimd about the throne, 
and about the elders and the four living creat- 
ures; and they fell before the throne on their 
faces, and worshipped God, saying: ^Amen: 
Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanks- 



60 TEE EEAVENLT CITY. 

giving, and honor, and power, and might, be 
Tinto our God for ever and ever. Amen.' 

And one of the elders answered, saying nnto 
me: ^These which are arrayed in the white robes, 
who are they, and whence came they?' And I 
say unto him: ^My Lord, thou knowest.' And 
he said to me: 'These are they which come out 
of the great tribulation, and they washed their 
robes, and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of 
God; and they serve him day and night in his 
temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall 
spread his tabernacle over them. They shall 
hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither 
shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat: 
for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne 
shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them 
unto fountains of waters of life : and God shall 
wipe away every tear from their eyes.'" Rev. 
7:9-17, R.Y. 

^^And I heard a voice from heaven, ... as 
the voice of harpers harping with their harps; 
and they sing, as it were, a new song before the 
throne, and before the four living creatures and 
the elders; and no man could learn the song 
save the hundred forty and four thousand, even 
they that had been purchased out of the earth." 

And they sing the song of Moses the servant 
of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: 
^^Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord 



EMPLOYMENTS AND ENJOYMENTS. Gl 

God^ the Almiglity; rigliteous and true are thy 
ways, thou King of the ages.'^ Eev. 14:2, 3; 
15:3, E.V. 

IMMORTAL BEI]N^G. 

^^In the manifested presence of the Sovereign 
Happiness it can no more be conceived of as 
possible, that created and dependent spirits 
should make to themselves, or find room to ad- 
mit, any happiness which does not emanate from 
that of the Supreme Being, than it is possible, 
in the very face of the summer's sun, to kindle 
a blaze which can repel or surpass that of noon. 
The very structure of the mind implies that the 
greatest and most vivid cause of excitement 
should prevail over the lesser. 

^'It will, indeed, be alleged, and perhaps justly, 
that the same reasons which now demand an 
after-life will go forward with undiminished 
force to another, and, again, to another epoch 
of existence ; so as, in fact, to establish the claim 
of man to absolute immortality. It may be so; 
and yet the vastness of such a belief, if we con- 
ceive of what the terms convey, must throw us 
back upon the clearest and most irrefragable 
proof. What is it we are speaking of? — Infin- 
ity ! and infinity attached to a finite being ! Does 
it not seem as if for a creature to challenge to 
itself, in any sense, a boundless attribute, were 
to trench upon the prerogative of the Divine 



63 TEE HEAVENLY CITY. 

Ifature? Or if Revelation had not set this mat- 
ter on another footing (as we shall see) might 
it not seem a surrender of the first principles of 
theology to admit that beings^ derived^ depend- 
ent, limited, might participate with the un- 
created and unlimited nature in the attribute of 
indestructible existence? Can it be true that 
men, or any other creatures, shall go on in com- 
pany with the Self-existent Being, through such 
tracts of duration as shall almost bring oblivion 
upon the point of commencement and generate 
a consciousness as if he and they were alike 
eternal? We talk lightly of immortality; but 
it is because the greatness of the idea prevents 
our considering what it is we affirm. More 
thoughtfulness would impel us to look more 
narrowly to the grounds of our belief. 

^^But has it not been demonstrated that mind, 
because it is a simple and indestructible sub- 
stance, must live for ever? Whoever accepts 
this demonstration is free to do so; and even 
those who decline to receive it as absolutely con- 
clusive will gladly listen to an argument on this 
ground after they have, by another process, con- 
vinced themselves that, indeed, the human mind 
is destined to perpetuity. Meanwhile both par- 
ties will gratefully turn to the inspired writings, 
to derive thence the best sort" of evidence the 
doctrine can admit. And this evidence will be 
found to possess a force, by implication of prin- 



EMPLOYMENTS AND ENJOYMENTS. 63 

ciples, which far surpasses any imaginable value 
that ought to be attached to the etymological im- 
port of single words.'' Isaac Taylor. 

PROGRESS. 

Conscious life involves progress. There is 
nothing in death to break the law of continuity 
and to involve the cessation by the soul of all 
active and energetic life. It is the separation 
from the man of his outer equipment: the tak- 
ing away ^^the garments by the soul laid by," 
and folding them for interment on the shelves 
of the tomb; but it is nothing more. Up to 
the moment of separation the man has been a 
willing, thinking, loving being; after that mo- 
ment, with more perfect equipment, he con- 
tinues the same active and energetic play of 
human faculties. We can love, and think, and 
will; undergo hope, expectation, and joy, as 
easily for an eternity as for a brief three score 
years and ten. 

If ever there has come to us the longing, in 
the midst of fiery temptations, to stand scathless 
and untouched, like Christ in the wilderness; if 
ever the desire to move undismayed to our 
chosen purpose of truth, like Christ before 
Pilate; if ever the wish to submit wholly and 
unreservedly to the better will of God, like 
Christ in Gethsemane; if ever the prayer for 
the patience and courage to be undisturbed amid 



64 THE HEAVENLY CITY, 

tlie storms of calumny and injustice, like Clirist 
before the Sanlieclrin; if ever the wish pos- 
sesses us for the perfect trust that can stand 
hopefully before death, like Christ upon the 
cross ; if ever the aspiration for that perfect con- 
secration that passes through the scenes of life 
without evil in thought or deed, like Christ in 
his entire life on earth; we are told, we are 
assuredly promised, that these longings shall be 
gratified in Paradise, and we, in very truth, 
^^shall be like him.'' Charles H. Strong, A.M. 

HEALTH. 

Frame a notion of the pleasure of health and 
soundness, when both all the parts and members 
of the body are in their proper places and pro- 
portions, and a lively, active vigor, a sprightly 
strength possesses every part and actuates the 
whole ; how pleasant is this temper ! If we were 
all body, there could be no greater felicity than 
this. But by how much the more noble any 
creature is, so is it capable of more exquisite 
pains or pleasures. Sin is the sickness and dis- 
ease of the soul ; enfeebles all its powers, ex- 
hausts its vigor, wastes its strength. You know 
the restless tossings, the weary rollings to and 
fro, of a diseased, languishing body; such is 
the case of a sinful soul. Let it but seriously 
bethink itself, and then speak its own sense,— 
but here is the malignity of the disease, it can- 



EMPLOYMENTS AND ENJOYMENTS. 65 

not be serious, it always raves, — what will it be? 
^^Oh, I can take no rest P' The way of wicked- 
ness is called ^^a way of pain;" sinners wonld 
find it so if the violence of the disease had not 
bereft them of sense. ^^JSTothing savors with 
me; I can take comfort in nothing." ^^The 
wicked is as a troubled sea/' as their name im- 
ports, ^'^that cannot rest, whose waters," etc. 
The image of God renewed in holiness and 
righteousness is health restored after such a con- 
suming sickness; which, when we awake, when 
all the drowsiness that attends our disease is 
shaken off, we find to be perfect. 

The nearest approaches, therefore, of the soul 
to God, its most intimate union with him and 
entire subjection to him in its glorified state, 
makes its liberty consummate. ISlow is its deliv- 
erance complete, its bands are fallen off; it is 
perfectly disentangled from all the snares of 
death, in which it was formerly held; it is un- 
der no restraints, oppressed by no weights, held 
down by no clogs. It hath free exercise of all 
its powers; hath every faculty and affection at 
command. How inconceivable a pleasure is 
this ! With what delight doth the poor prisoner 
entertain himself when his manacles and fetters 
are knocked off; when he is enlarged from his 
loathsome dungeon and the house of his bond- 
age; breathes in a free air; can dispose of him- 
self and walk at will ! The bird escaped from 



66 TEE EEAYENLT CITY. 

his cage, or freed from his line and stone that 
resisted its vain and too feeble stragglings be- 
fore; how pleasantly doth it range, with what 
joy doth it clap its wings and take its flight ! A 
faint emblem of the joy wherewith that pleasant 
cheerful note shall one day be sung and chanted 
forth: ^^Our soul is escaped, as a bird out of the 
snare of the fowler; the snare is broken, and we 
are escaped/' There is now no place for such 
a complaint: ^^I would, but I cannot; I would 
turn my thoughts to glorious objects, but I can- 
not/' The blessed soul feels itself free from all 
confinement; nothing resists its will, as its will 
doth never resist the will of God. John Howe. 



SAFETY. 

Augustine was about to write on "Thou shalt 
make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.'' 
Ps. 36:8. He became so filled with thoughts of 
the heavenly joys that he heard some one call 
out his name, and ask who he was. Then he 
•spoke of his doubts on earth, and asked: "Art 
thou able to put the whole earth and the waters 
of the sea into a little cup? Canst thou measure 
the waters in thy fist? And mete the heavens 
with thy span? Or weigh the mountains in a 
balance or the hills in scales? If not, no more 
is it possible that thy understanding should com- 
prehend the least of these joys.'' 



EMPLOYMENTS AND ENJOYMENTS. 67 

When a Roman cardinal threatened Luther 
that there would not be a place in all the great 
empire where he would be free from danger, 
Luther replied with a smile: ^^If earth cannot 
keep me safe, heaven will/' 

A lady at the house of a minister saw his two 
little boys amusing themselves with some pretty 
toys. She courteously said to them, ^^So these 
are your treasures !" "No, ma'm,'' they an- 
swered, "these are not our treasures, they are 
our playthings. Our treasures are in heaven." 

Heavenly knowledge. "An infant standing 
on the top of a mountain may see much farther 
than a giant at its base. So a lisping babe, whom 
Jesus has taken from the mother's bosom to his 
own, excels in knowledge the profoundest of 
philosophers and the greatest of divines." Dr. 
Guthrie. 



CHAPTEE V. 

THE GLORIES OF HEAVEN. 

"Having the glory of God." "For the glory of God 
did lighten it." Rev. 21; 11, 23. 

"In the Apocalypse we have a door opened 
into the future. The Apocalypse is the climax 
of revelation, just as God puts heaven at the 
end of every grand life. It is a book which 
carries us from present conditions to permanent 
issues. It crowns the story of redemptive agen- 
cies with a vision of redemptive achievements. 
It is the book of finishing touches and of final 
results. It takes up the broken threads of his- 
tory and weaves them into the fabric of eternity. 
It advances our thoughts from the Christ of 
earth to the Christ of heaven: It carries us 
over the Jordan of death into the 'New Jeru- 
salem of the Promised Land above. What can 
be grander than the things after death, as these 
are symbolized in this book, by white throne, 
golden harp, spotless robes, and the resplendent 
city of God with its tree of life, river of life, and 
gtreets of gold? What can be grander? Walk- 
(68) 



THE GLORIES OF HEAVEN, 69 

ing by faith amid these things, we inhale the 
serenity of God, and are filled with the joy of 
of God.'' David Gregg. 



FREE FROM EVIL. 

^^To spend age after age, cycle after cycle — 
yea, eternity itself — without being obliged to 
reject a single enticement to evil, this passes our 
comprehension. It seems a reach of blessedness 
almost too exalted even for a people redeemed 
by the blood of the Lamb. Yet it belongs essen- 
tially to the Scriptural conception of the glory 
that shall be revealed in the saints. 

^The earnest expectation of the creature 
waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of 
God.'' And still more significantly in the verse 
preceding this: ^heirs of God, and joint-heirs 
with Christ.' 

^'These expressions baffle us. We cannot take 
them in. But this we know; they savor of a 
glory which passeth knowledge. They point to 
the glory of the uncreated One. ... In 
this glory the ransomed are to share, for they too 
are sons of God and joint-heirs with Christ. 
This glory is to be put upon them. Here is 
what is meant by the manifestation of the sons 
of God: their being arrayed in the glory of 
their Lord and Saviour, in the presence of the 
universe." Henry A, Boardman. 



70 TEE HEAVENLY CITY, 

^^Eaise your eyes to the New Jerusalem. 
Gold paves its streets, and around its secure and 
blissful homes rise walls of jasper. Earth holds 
no such city; the depths of ocean no such pearls 
as form its gates. No storm sweeps its glassy 
sea; no \vinter strips its trees ; no thunders shake 
its serene and cloudless sky. Day there never 
darkens into night. Harps and palms are in 
the hands, while crowns of glory flash and blaz:e 
upon the heads of its sinless inhabitants. From 
this distant stormy orb, as the dove eyed the ark, 
faith gazes on the glorious vision, and weary of 
the strife, longing to be gone, cries: ^O that I 
had wings like a dove ! for then would I fly 
away and be at rest."^ Dr. Guthrie. 

HEAVENLY SONGS. 

"The most glorious bursts of harmony that 
ever thrilled and quivered through the brain of 
Handel, the pealing triumphs of ^Hallelujah 
Chorus,' the glowing snatches of Mozart, the 
gorgeous sonatas of Beethoven, the almost speak- 
ing melodies of Mendelssohn, and all the ex- 
quisite conceptions of the most gifted masters, 
may be only faint and far-oflP echoes of the 
grander melodies above ; yet as echoes they bring 
down something of heavenly music to the hearts 
of men on earth, and make us yearn and bend 
before the thought. ^If these be echoes, what 
must the realities be !' " 



THE GLORIES OF HEAVEN. 71 

Mrs. Eowe, in her meditations, exclaims: ^^O 
blessed eternity ! With what cheerful splendor 
dost thou dawn on my soul ! . . . I am just 
upon the shores of those happy realms where 
uninterrupted day and eternal spring reside. 
Yonder are the delectable hills and harmonious 
vales which continue to echo the songs of angels. 
There the blissful fields extend their verdure 
and there the immortal groves ascend. 

^^But how dazzling is thy prospect, O, City 
of God, of whom such glorious things are 
spoken? In thee there shall be no more night, 
nor need of the sun, or of the moon, for the 
throne of God and of the Lamb is in the midst 
of thee; and the nations that are saved shall 
walk in thy light, and the kings of the earth 
shall bring their glory and honors unto thee. 
. . . I shall behold the beatific glory, with- 
out one interrupting cloud, to eternity, when I 
shall drink my fill at the fountains of joy, and 
in those rivers of pleasure that flow from his 
right hand for evermore !'^ 

SUBLIME BEAUTY. 

"A thousand things, speculative and poetical, 
have been written in regard to the Christian's 
future home. The Bible says just enough to 
rouse our curiosity and to stimulate speculation, 
but not enough to spoil the sublime mystery 
which overhangs it like a cloud of glory. A 



^2 TEE EEAVENL7 CITY. 

few things seem to my own mind at least to be 
well established. Heaven is a place; it is not a 
mere state or condition of blissful holiness. A 
distinctly bounded place of abode it must be, 
or else John's view of it from Patmos was an 
idle phantasm. God's word speaks of it as a 
^city/ and as filled with ^many mansions.' The 
light of it proceeds from a central throne; for 
the Lamb in the midst of the throne is the light 
thereof. Its pellucid pavements are like unto 
fine gold. The music of its praises fell upon the 
apostle's ear with such a sublime roar of melo- 
dies that, likening them to the Mediterranean's 
surf dashing upon the rocks of Patmos, he calls 
them the ^sound of many waters.' Surrounding 
this vast scene of splendor he saw something 
which he describes as walls of precious stones, 
and these walls were pierced with gates of 
pearl." Theodore L, Ciiyler. 



''A. king from heaven hath sent for you; by 
faith he showeth you the new Jerusalem, and 
taketh you along in the Spirit, through all its 
ease-rooms and dwelling-houses in heaven, and 
saith: ^These are mine; this palace is for thee 
and Christ.' And ye only had been the chosen 
of God, Christ would have built that one house 
for you and for himself; now it is for you and 
many others." Samuel ButJierford. 



TEE GLORIES OF HEAVEN, 73 

GLORIOUS TRAISTSFORMATIOl^S. 

"We are too much tempted to regard this 
world as if it were the real world^ and the world 
to come as if it were unreal, shadowy, vague, un- 
substantial, distant, somewhere beyond the fixed 
stars. But, in matter of fact, it is this world 
which is unreal, phenomenal, unstable, never 
continuing in one stay. And how short our 
tenure of it is ! Even if it were eternal, we are 
not eternally in it. We cannot tell how soon we 
may be summoned out of it; but we know the 
longest life has but a short time to remain here. 
On the other hand, the next world is eternal, 
stable, not distant, not beyond the stars — em- 
braces this world, penetrates it through and 
through, is quite close to us, holding our treas- 
ures — -those who are lost and gone from us, and 
whom we may hope to meet again, and even now 
are near us, though we have no organs to see and 
hear them. 

"At present we are deaf and blind to its reali- 
ties. Yet it is not far away beyond the plan- 
etary spaces and the fixed stars. It is close to 
us. It incloses and interpenetrates this visible 
world. Shapes move to and fro about us, and 
voices agitate the air, though they make no im- 
pression on our dull organs. How little does 
the caterpillar know of the powers which lie 
hidden within it, or of the world in whose sun- 



74 TEE HEAVENLY CITY. 

shine it will flit joyously from flower to flower ! 
Yet the butterfly is not a different creature from 
the caterpillar: it is but the caterpillar trans- 
formed. N^or is the world of the butterfly dif- 
ferent from the world of the caterpillar: it is 
the same world, seen with other eyes. The 
change is in the caterpillar, not in the world." 
Malcolm MacColl, M.A. 

"Oh, what spring-time is there ! Even the 
smelling of the odors of that great and eternally- 
blooming Rose of Sharon for ever and ever ! 
What a singing life is there ! There is not a 
dumb bird in all that field; but all sing and. 
breathe out heaven, joy, glory, dominion to the 
high Prince of that new-found land. And verily 
that land is the sweeter that Jesus Christ paid 
so dear a rent for it. And he is the glory of that 
land." Samuel Rutherford. 

A lovely city in a lovely 1 nd, 

Whose citizens are lovely, and whose king 

Is very Love: to whom til angels sing; 

To whom all saints sing, crowned, their sacred band 

Saluting Love with palm-branch in their hand; 

A bower of roses is not half so sweet, 

A cave of diamonds doth not glitter so, 

Nor Lebanon is fruitful set thereby; 

And thither thou, beloved, and thither I 

May set our heart, and set our face, and go, 

Faint, yet pressing home on tireless feet." 

Christina G, Rossetti. 



CHAPTEE YI. 



CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. 



"Even so it is not the will of your Father which is 
in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." 
Matt. 18:14. 

The Bible tells us all we certainly know upon 
this subject. Let us bear wbat it says. Read 
attentively wbat Jesus said unto bis disciples: 

^^In tbat bour came tbe disciples unto Jesus, 
saying: Wbo tben is greatest in tbe kingdom of 
heaven? 

^^And he called to him a little child, and set 
him in the midst of them, and said: Verily I 
say unto you, except ye turn, and become as 
little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the 
kingdom of heaven. 

^^Whosoever therefore shall humble himself 
as this little child, the same is greatest in the 
kingdom of heaven. 

^^See tbat ye despise not one of these little 
ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their 
angels do always behold the face of my Father, 
which is in heaven.'' 

(75) 



76 TEE EEAVENLY CITY, 

^^And he took a little cliild^ and set liim in the 
midst of them; and taking him in his arms, he 
said unto them: ^Whosoever shall receive one of 
such little children in my name^ receiveth me; 
and whosoever receiveth me receiveth not me, 
but him that sent me.''' Matt. 18:1-4, 10; 
Mark 9:36, 37, E.V. 

Notice carefully Matt. 18:10: "In heaven 
their angels do always behold the face of my 
Father." Some may say that language is figura- 
tion. Be it so; but the figure stands for some 
serious fact. What is that fact? It was some- 
thing that would be a warning against the 
thoughtless in their treatment of the "little 
ones." What can it mean but that these "little 
one" are lovingly regarded by the Father, and 
are under his protecting care? That guardian 
angels are assigned to watch over them? And to 
bring them safe to heaven, in case of early re- 
moval from earth? 

But read attentively another teaching of our 
Lord. 

"And they brought unto him little children, 
that he should touch them; and the disciples re- 
buked them. 

"But when Jesus saw it, he was moved with 
indignation, and said unto them: Suffer the 
little children to come unto. me; forbid them 
not; for of such is the kingdom of God. 

"Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not 



CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. 77 

receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, lie 
shall in no wise enter therein. And he took 
them up in his arms, and blessed them, laying 
his hands upon them." Mark 10:13-19. 

It has been frequently pointed out that the 
words ^^of such'^ in verse 14 in the Greek is the 
genitive of possession. That is, the kingdom of 
God is the possession of such little children; it 
belongs to them. 

]^o statement could well be made stronger on 
this subject. This glorious truth comes to us 
from the Master and Lord himself. It comes, 
too, when some of his chosen apostles would keep 
the loving mothers from bringing their little 
ones to Jesus. So there have been in the past 
some theologians who would deny many little 
children a place in heaven, although the children 
died before coming to an age of reasonable ac- 
countability. 

But Jesus teaches that not a soul will ever 
enter heaven unless he comes in the spirit of a 
little child. 

In view of Christ's teaching, how beautiful 
becomes the glorious prediction of the prophet 
Zecheriah. Speaking of the restoration of the 
holy city, he says: ^^And the streets of the city 
shall be full of boys and girls playing in the 
streets thereof.'' Zech. 8 : 5. 

^^Do you remember Raphael's picture — the 



78 THE HEAYENLT CITY, 

Sistme Madonna? The cloud against whicli the 
holy child Jesus and his mother are revealed 
seems at first sight to be only a celestial vapor; 
but as you look more closely you see that it is 
composed of beautiful shining infant faces. It 
is no poet's dream; it is a reality. The very air 
of heaven is populous and radiant with happy 
childhood.'' Henry Van Dylce. 

NOT HERE — BUT THERE! 

I cannot make him dead! 
When passing by the bed 
So long watched over with parental care, 

My spirit and my eye seek him inquiringly, 
Before the thought comes that — he is not there ! 

Not there ! Where, then, is he ? 

The form I used to see 
Wash out the raiment that he used to wear. 

The grave that now doth press 

Upon that cast-off dress 
Is but his wardrobe locket — he is not there! 

He lives ! In all the r»- st 

He lives: nor, to the last, 
Of seeing him will I despair. 

In dreams I see him now. 

And on his angel brow, 
I see it written: "Thou shalt see me there!" 

John Pierpont, 

IINTANTS IN HEAVEN. 

That infant children may be saved, by the 
grace of God in Christ Jesus, is very widely held 



CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. 79 

now to be the clear and distinct teaching of 
Scripture. The theory of the Roman Catholic 
Church, that they must be lost unless baptized 
into that church/ and the inferences from the 
teachings of creeds and of theologians, not en- 
tirely free from the dark shadows of the middle 
ages, cannot be maintained in the light of Script- 
ure. 

That the Bible teaches us to believe in the 
salvation of children who have not reached the 
age of reasonable accountability is the view 
strongly held by Ulrich Zwingli, the noble Swiss 
reformer. It was also firmly held by Isaac Bar- 
row the great English mathematician and theo- 
logian, by Augustus Toplady author of the great- 
est hymn in the English language: "Eock of 
Ages, Cleft for Me." It was stoutly maintained 
by Lyman Beecher and equally forcibly main- 
tained by Charles Hodge. He declared that it 
had become the common doctrine of evangelical 
Protestants that all who die in infancy are saved. 

ARE THE CHILDREN HOME? 

Alone in the dear old homestead 

That once was full of life, 
Ringing with girlish laughter, 

Echoing boyish strife, 
We two are waiting together, 

And oft, as the shadows come, 
With tremulous voice he calls me, 

'T!t is night — are the children home?*' 



80 TEE EEAYENL7 CITY. 

*^es, love!" I answer him gently, 
"They're all home long ago;" 
And I sing in my quivering treble 

A song so soft and low, 
That the old man drops to slumber 

With his head upon his hand; 
And I tell to myself the number 
Home in the better land. 

Sometimes, in the dusk of evening, 

I only shut my eyes, 
And the children are all about me, 

A vision from the skies; 
The babes whose dimpled lingers 

Did lose the way to my breast. 
And the beautiful ones, the angels, 

Passed to the world of the blest. 

And still as the summer sunset 

Fadeth aw^ay in the west, 
And the wee ones, tired of playing, 

Go trooping home to rest. 
My husband calls from his corner, 

"Say, love, have the children come?" 
And I answer, with eyes uplifted, 
"Yes, dear, they are all at Home." 

Anonymous, 

CHILDREN ABOVE. 

Jerusalem, the joyful, 

I love to think of thee. 
Within the many mansions 

Is endless jubilee; 
And, blending with the worship 

Of saints who sing for aye. 
Is heard the blithe, street-music 

Of boys and girls at play. 



CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. gl 

They play, those holy children, 

And nought can soil or tear 
In all their pretty gambols 

The robes of white they wear. 
They run about in safety, 

For naught can hurt them now; 
The seal of their salvation — 

God's name — is on each brow. 

Ah ! should we grudge their going, 

Though early called away! 
Or grieve, when Christ says: Suffer 

The little ones to play. 
He listens to their laughter, 
,-. As to the saints who sing 
And in their joy is joyful, 

As they are in their king. 

Bev. A, G, Alexander, 



THE CHILD IN BLISS. 

I have a son, a third sweet son; his age I cannot tell, 
For they reckon not by years and months where he has 

gone to dwell. 
To us, for fourteen anxious months, his infant smiles were 

given; 
And then he bade farewell to earth, and went to live in 

Heaven. 
I cannot tell what form is his, what looks he weareth now; 
Nor guess how bright a glory crowns his shining seraph 

brow. 
The thoughts that fill his sinless soul, the bliss which he 

doth feel. 
Are numbered with the secret things which God will not 

reveal. 
But I know (for God hath told me this) that he is now 

at rest. 



82 TEE HEAVENLY CITY. 

Where other blessed infants be: on their Saviour's loving 

breast. 
I know his spirit feels no more this weary load of flesh, 
But his sleep is blessed with endless dreams of joy forever 

fresh. 
I know the angels fold him close beneath their glittering 

wings, 
And soothe him with a song that breaths of Heaven's 

divinest things. 
I know that we shall meet our babe (his mother dear 

and I) 
Where God for aye shall wipe all tears from every eye. 
Whatever befalls his brethren twain, his bliss can never 

cease; 
Their lot may here be grief and fear, but his is perfect 

peace. 
It may be that the tempter's wiles their souls from bliss 

may sever; 
But, if our own poor faith fail not, he must be ours forever. 
When we think of what our darling is, and what we still 

must be — 
When we muse on that world's perfect bliss, and this 

world's misery — 
When we groan beneath this load of sin, and feel this griel 

and pain — 
Oh, we'd rather lose our other two^ than have him here 

again! 

John Moultrie, 

THE CHILD ANGEL. 

How changed, dear friends, are thy part and thy child's! 

He bends above thy cradle now, or holds 

His warning finger out to be thy guide ; 

Thou art the nursling now: He watches thee 

Slow learning, one by one, the secret things 

Which are to him used sights of every day; 



CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. 83 

He smiles to see thy wondering glances con 

The grass and pebbles of the spirit-world, 

To thee miraculous; and he will teach 

Thy knees their due observances of prayer. 

Children are God's apostles, day by day 

Sent forth to preach of love, and hope, and peace; 

Nor hath thy babe his mission left undone. 

To me, at least, his going hence hath given 

Serener thoughts and nearer to the skies; 

And opened a new fountain in my heart 

For thee, my friend, and all : and oh, if Death 

More near approaches, meditates, and clasps 

Even now some dearer, more reluctant hand. 

God, strengthen thou my faith that I may see 

That 'tis thine angel, who, with loving haste, 

Unto the service of the inner shrine 

Doth waken thy beloved with a kiss. 

James Russell Lowell, 

'^Some day I am sure I shall find her,— 
But the road is so lonesome between, 
My spirit grows sick and impatient 

For a glimpse of the pastures so green: 
Till then, I shall sit in the doorway, 

In the hour that my heart loves best, 
And think, when the children pass homeward, 
My child will come with the rest." 

May Riley Smith. 



CHAPTEE YII. 

EEOOGlSTTIOISr OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 

"They shall see his face.'' Rev. 22: 4. 

"Then face to face! now I know in part: but then 

shall I know even as also I have been known." 

1 Cor. 13:12, R.V. 

The reunion and recognition of friends in 
heaven is a truth which is assumed in Scripture, 
rather than formally stated, proved, or directly 
illustrated. 

Yet this mode of presenting the doctrine in 
connection with other truths, taking that truth 
for granted, is, in some aspects, more convinc- 
ing and assuring than would be one or two single 
passages directly stating it. 

SOCIAL RECOGNITION. 

The existence of God is nowhere directly as- 
serted in Scripture, but it is everywhere assumed. 
Yet no one doubts that the Bible teaches the 
existence of God. Study the account of the 
transfiguration; the apostles appear to have 
recognized Moses and Elijah. Matt. 17, Mark 
(84) 



RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 85 

9, Luke 9:28 ff. Notice the social feasts in tlie 
kingdom: ^^sit down/' literally ^^recline/' Matt. 
8:11, Luke 13:29. They ''see" Abraham, etc., 
and many like passages. 

When Dr. Willett was on his death-bed, his 
wife asked him whether he thought saints would 
know one another in glory. He answered in the 
words of Luther, that when Adam, in innocency, 
first saw Eve he did not ask whence she came, 
but at once said, This is bone of my bone, and 
flesh of my flesh. So saints of God in heaven, 
illuminated beyond Adam in his first innocency, 
shall know, not only those they knew on earth, 
but will recognize those they never saw before. 
Thus the three on the Mount of Transfiguration 
knew Moses and Elijah, though they had never 
seen them before. 

RECOGNITION. 
^1 felt that, however long to me 
The slumber of the grave might be, 
I should know him again 'mid the countless throng 
Who shall hear their past in the Seraphim's song." 

L. E, Landon, 

"As then we shall perfectly love God, and his 
saints as him, so shall we know both him and 
them ; and though it be a sufficient motive of our 
love in heaven, yet we know them to be saints, 
yet it seems to be no small addition *to our hap- 
piness that those saints were once ours. And if 



86 TEE HEAYENLT CITY. 

it be a just joy to a parent here on earth to see 
his child gracious, how much more accession shall 
it be to his joy above, to see the fruit of his 
loins glorious, when both his love is more pure, 
and their improvement absolute !'' Bishop Hall 
(1574-1656). 

^That our heavenly home will satisfy our 
fullest social lovings we cannot doubt. No one 
need complain of the lack of good society there. 

^^Old Dr. Emmons is not the only Christian 
who has fed his hopes of a good talk with the 
apostle Paul. Dr. Guthrie is not the only 
parent who has felt assured that ^his little 
Johnnie would meet him inside the gate.' Many 
a pastor expects to find his converted flock as a 
^crown of rejoicing to him in that day.' 

^^The recognition of friends then cannot pos- 
sibly be a question of doubt. No barriers of caste 
can separate those who are children of the one 
Father and dwelling in the same household/' 
Theodore L. Cuyler, 



NO PARTING THEEE. 

**There is a world above 

Where parting is unknown: 
A whole eternity of love, 

Formed for the good alone; 
And faith beholds the dying here 
Translated to that happier sphere." 

James Montgomery, 



RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 87 

'Then crowned again, their golden harps they took — 
Harps, ever tuned, that, glittering by their side, 
Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet 
Of charming symphony, they introduce 
Their sacred song, and waken raptures high; 
No voice exempt, no voice but well could join 
Melodious part — such concord is in heaven." 

John Milton, 



The devout Thomas breaks forth: "Oh, most 
blessed mansions of the heavenly Jerusalem! 
Oh most effulgent day of eternity, which night 
obscnreth not, but the snpreme truth continu- 
ally enlighteneth ! It shineth now in the full 
splendor of perpetual light to the blessed, but to 
the poor pilgrims on earth it appeareth only at 
a great distance and through a glass, darkly." 
Thomas a Kempis. 

THE GATHEEED FAMTLY. 

**Thus heaven is gathering, one by one, in its capacious 

breast, 
All that is pure and permanent, and beautiful and blest; 
The family is scattered yet, though of one home and 

heart. 
Part militant in earthly gloom, in heavenly glory part. 
But who can speak the rapture, when the circle is 

complete, 
And all the children sundered, now around one Father 

meet? 
One fold, one Shepherd, one employ, one everlasting 

home; 



88 TEE HEAVENLY CITY. 

*Lo! I come quickly!' *Even so^ Amen: Lord Jesus, 
come/ '' 

Edward Henry Bickersteth, 



THE WELCOME. 

^^We must think of heaven as an existing 
reality. . . . Will there be those who shall 
be ready to welcome ns? Shall there be those 
whom we ourselves can remember? That is not 
a barren speculation; it is that which has surely 
engaged every thinking mind, and every sus- 
ceptible heart. ... The first Christian 
teachers always rested their labors upon a re- 
ward; they did not deny that they contemplated 
a reward which consisted in the conversion, in 
the salvation, and in the glory of those spirits 
whom they had instrumentally rescued and 
saved. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown 
of glorying? Are not even ye before our Lord 
Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our 
glory and our joy. . . . That I may have 
whereof to glory in the day of Christ, that I did 
not run in vain, neither labor in vain. . . . 
That we may present every man perfect in 
Christ.'' 1 Thess. 2:19, 20. Phil. 2:16. Col. 
1:28. 

"ITow all this surely is confirmation strong — 
the confirmation of Holy Writ— that the apos- 
tles anticipated a reward, and that that reward 
cannot for a moment b© separated from their 



RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 89 

recognition of those who were the fruits of their 
ministry and the seal of their zeal (on the 
earth).'' Dr. James Hamilton. 

JOYFUL EECOGNITION. 

When Paul speaks of his converts as "his 
crown of rejoicing/' did he not believe that he 
should know them in heaven? Paul says: "then 
shall I know even as also I am known/' or as 
the Revised Version more strongly reads : "Even 
as also I have been known/' as if to intimate that 
in heaven his knowledge of others would be 
equal to the accumulation and sum of all the 
knowledge that had been gained concerning him 
in the ages past ! What a loving and beautiful 
friendship does this suggest to the heart yearn- 
ing for love ! ^ ^ 

Again, in that harvest-home of heaven the 
sower and the reaper are to rejoice together. So 
the words of Jesus lead us to believe. But how 
can they so rejoice unless they are able to recog- 
nize each other in the heavenly world? See 
John 4:36, and compare Gal. 6:7, 8. 

It is scarcely credible that our Lord did not 
intend to represent Lazarus as knowing Abra- 
ham in whose bosom he was. See Luke 16:19- 
31. 

Jesus said to the sisters at Bethany to comfort 
them: "Thy brother shall rise again.'' The 
comfort would be largely taken away from these 



90 TEE EEAYENLY CITY. 

words if that brother was to wander about among 
the hosts of spirits unknown and unrecognized 
by the loving sisters. 

We cannot imagine how it could be possible 
for us in a world of perfection and glory, when 
all our spiritual powers and perceptions are to 
be intensely quickened and magnified^ for us to 
be less acquainted with the spiritual beings about 
us than we are with our associates and friends 
in this imperfect life on the earth. 

THEY BECKON ME. 

^ver the river they beckon to me, 

Loved ones who've crossed to the further side. 
The gleam of their snowy robes I see, 

But their voices are lost in the dashing tide. 
There's one with ringlets of sunny gold, 

And eyes the reflection of heaven's own blue, 
He crossed in the twilight gray and cold. 

And the hale mist hid him from mortal view; 
We saw not the angels who met him there, 

The gates of the city we could not see. 
Over the river, over the river, 

My brother stands waiting to welcome me. 

Nancy A. W. Priest, 

KNOWN BY JOYS. 

'Ilow shall we know them — who passed away 
In all the freshness of early day: 
Those whom we cherished in later years, 
From whom we parted in bitter tears? 
Not by the beauty that marked them then. 



RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN, 91 

Or, were it such, it must fade again; 
But by a gladness which round them plays, 
Like a joy revived from our olden days; 
By the holy joys our spirits knew, 
Which a better world shall again renew." 

Anonymous. 



THE CENTEE OF DIVINE COMMUNICATIONS. 

^^Heaven is the place in whicli are seen all the 
finishings of divine workmanship, and in which 
the beauty and greatness of the Infinite Mind, 
and the endless diversities of omniscient skill, 
appear in all their most exquisite forms, and in 
the last degrees of refinement and perfection. It 
is the center of all divine communications, the 
city in which all paths of Providence terminate, 
the ocean from which all streams of infinite 
wisdom and goodness proceed, and into which 
they return to flow again and forever/' Presi- 
dent Dwiglit, Sr. 

To Zion's peaceful courts above 
In faith triumphant may we soar, 

Embracing in the arms of love 
The friends, not lost, but gone before. 

Anonymous, 

LONGING FOR FEIENDS. 

I feel the unutterable longing, 
The hunger of the heart is mine, 

I reach and grasp for hands in darkness, 
My ear grows sharp for voice or sign. 



92 TEE EEAYENLT CITY. 

friend, no proof beyond this yearning, 
This outstretch of our hearts we need; 

God will not mock the hope he giveth, 
No love he prompts shall vainly plead. 

Then let us stretch our hands in darkness. 
And call our loved ones o'er and o'er; 

Some day their arms shall close about us, 
And the old voices speak once more. 

JoJm Greenleaf WMttier. 

"Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty." Isa. 

33:17. 
"I will that, where I am, they also may be with me, 

that they may behold riy glory." John 17 : 24. 



INDEX. 



Adams, quoted, 41. 
Alexander, Rev. A.C., poem, 80. 
Alexander, Archibald, quoted, 

23. 
Alford, Dean, quoted, 43. 
Ashamed of Jesus, poem, 28. 

Baxter, Richard, quoted, 53. 

Beings, celestial, 38. 
Beveridge, Bishop, quoted, 38. 
Bickersteth, Edward Henry,87. 
Boardman, Henry A., 69. 
Bonar, Horatius, quoted, 55, 

Celestial country, poem, 17. 
Child angel, the, 82. 
Child in bliss, the, poem, 81. 
Children above, poem, 80. 
Children, are the — home?, 

poem, 79. 
Clark, Alexander, quoted, 21. 
Cuyler, Theodore L., 71, 85. 

Drummond, quoted, 18, 19. 

Fuller, Andrew, quoted, 57. 

Gathered family, the, 87. 
Glorious voice, 21. 
Good of all ages, the, 40. 
Gregg, David, quoted, 45-47, 

55, 68. 
Growth in heaven, 43. 
Guthrie, Dr., quoted, 67, 70. 

Hall, Bishop, quoted, 14. 
Hamilton, Dr. James, 89. 



Havergal, F. R., quoted, 21, 

22. 
Health, 64. 
Heaven about us, 47-50. 

beauties of, 56. 

a blessed home, 15. 

center of divine communi- 
cations, 91. 

children in, 75. 

Christian idea of, 9. 

a city, 11. 

conditions of, 57. 

employments and enjoy- 
ments in, 52. 

fellowships of, 53. 

five steps to, 24. 

glories of, 68. 

God's throne, 13. 

growth in, 43. 

infants in, 78. 

inhabitants of, 38. 

no night there, 54. 

no parting there, poem, 86. 

no sect in, 50. 

palace, 13. 

populous, 44, 45. 

reached by faith, 19. 

reached by holy life, 20. 

reached by repentance, 19. 

society of, 39. 

study, society, singing in, 
58, 70. 

sublime beauty, 71. 

three steps to, 34. 

way to, 18. 
Heavenly pilot, the, 21. 
Heavenly songs, 70. 

(93) 



94 



INDEX. 



Hill's, Rowland, triumph, 36. 
Howe, John, quoted, 64. 

Immortal being, 61. 
Infants in heaven, 78. 

Jerusalem the golden, 17. 
Joyful recognition, 89. 

Kempis, Thomas a', 87. 
Known by joys, 90. 

Landon, L. E., 85. 

Longing for friends, 91. 

Loving service, 55. 

Lowell, James Russell, poem, 

83. 
Luther, quoted, 21. 

MacColl, Canon, quoted, 47-50, 

73. 
MacNeil, John, quoted, 31, 

33. 
Melville, Henry, quoted, 54. 
Milton, John, quoted, 16, 87. 
Montgomery, James, quoted, 

se. 

Moultrie, John, poem, 81. 

Nevins, quoted, 15, 39. 

Phelps, Prof., quoted, 20. 
Pierpont, John, quoted, 78. 
Priest, Nancy A. W., poem, 

90. 
Progress, 63. 



Raffles, Thomas, quoted, 66. 
Receive the blessing, 33. 
Repentance needed, 19. 
Romaine, William, quoted, 23. 
Rossetti, Christina G., quoted, 

37, 74. 
Rowe, Mrs., 71. 
Rutherford, Samuel, quoted, 72, 

74. 

Shut out, 37. 

Smith, J. Dedham, quoted, 43. 
Social recognition, 85. 
Spirit-filled life, 30. 
Spiritual riches, 32. 
Spurgeon, Chas, H., quoted, 

42. 
Stanley, Dean, quoted, 41. 
Strong, Chas. H., 63. 

Taylor, Isaac, quoted, 20, 61. 
Taylor, Jeremy, quoted, 20, 44, 

45, 56, 
They beckon me, poem, 90. 
Transformations, glorious, 73. 

Van Dyke, Henry, quoted, 78. 

Way of grace, the, 21. 
Way of new birth, 23. 
Welcome, the, 89. 
Whittier, J, G., quoted, 91. 
Willett, Dr., quoted, 85. 
Win souls on the way, 34. 

Zeuxis, quoted, 34. 



-co 18 1899 



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